


Re-Awaken

by ExBlazE



Category: One Piece
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Gen, Reincarnation, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24942247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExBlazE/pseuds/ExBlazE
Summary: Luffy hoped not to make the same mistake twice. So if he had to become stronger to protect his crew, then he would. That, he promised. Time Travel via death and rebirth.
Comments: 58
Kudos: 233





	1. Never That Easy

Luffy grunted as he was forced to kneel on the platform despite his resistance.

The crowd of thousands of marines assembled in formation below the tall tower could only stand in attention as ordered and watch with bated breath as the most wanted pirate of the generation was about to be executed.

In truth, they were completely blindsided by the announcement as well. Fleet Admiral Akainu had just up and randomly decided that today would be the day to execute the pirate that had been caught many months ago.

Luffy glared at the two soldiers waiting on his sides. Both of them gulped fearfully. Bound or not, it was downright terrifying to be glared at by a man whose head was worth almost five billion belly.

Akainu didn't even bother with giving a speech. He directly gave the signal for the execution.

The two soldiers on the platform raised their weapons into the air...

And promptly fell down unconscious, foaming at the mouth.

There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at the comatose soldiers. Luffy's head remained bowed and his eyes shaded as he grinned in challenge.

The moment passed quickly. "Onigumo. Get up there." The vice admiral heeded the Fleet Admiral's command easily and airhopped up to the top. He negligently kicked the two unconscious soldiers off the platform and pulled out two of his swords and took aim at the pirate's neck.

The swords stopped an inch away from their target and try as he might, Onigumo simply couldn't push them further towards the grinning pirate.

Luffy's eyes panned over to the vice admiral's and the next moment, the man shot off the platform as if launched by a cannon, a trail of blood left in the air.

"Enough of this!" Luffy tilted his head to the left and Akainu's fiery fist flew past his face. They glared at each other.

"Seize these games, Straw Hat. No one is coming to rescue you regardless of how much you stall for time. That's the point of the sudden decision to execute you. Your crewmates are all either locked in Impel Down or dead and no one else has enough time to organize a rescue operation. So stop wasting my time and just die!"

Akainu kicked the pirate's chest and subsequently his whole body off the tower and onto the ground below. He followed the pirate through the air as he continued "And remember the deal, pirate! Your life or your crew's life!"

Luffy landed heavily on his feet, the heavy seastone chains binding them making cracks on the ground as they fell. He snarled at Akainu "And why should I listen to you, bastard?! The last time I did that, you went back on your word and killed my friends anyway!"

Sparks of Conqueror's Haki flitted across Luffy's shackled body just barely kept under control from being invoked on the entire army before him. The line of soldiers nearest to him were pointing their rifles at him but their aim was shaking all over the place.

Akainu stood before him, both his arms already turned to lava, fully ready to fight "I am not going to explain my actions to you, pirate scum. But you made that deal with Sengoku and he agreed to see to its terms." The lava slowly turned darker and darker, almost black, as he applied Armament Haki over it.

Luffy glanced at the previous Fleet Admiral who standing on the edge of the potential battlefield with his arms crossed and passively observing everything.

He looked down at himself. Bound by two sets of seastone shackles, one on his wrists and one on his ankles, his body was full of barely closed wounds and badly healed scars. Thin, dehydrated limbs and a growling stomach indicated that he was truly not at peak condition to fight any battle.

But regardless...

Luffy raised his head at Akainu "Fine then. I'll die today."

In the silence following that declaration, a strong wind blew in and the straw hat dangling from his neck floated in the air for a moment before it fell right on his head.

Then suddenly, the chains holding the seastone shackles close to each other abruptly shattered, leaving only the bands themselves on his wrists and ankles.

Straw Hat Luffy grinned at Akainu as the red sparks now danced freely across his body. "I'll die today, that's for sure."

Conqueror's Haki exploded forth and three-quarters of the Marine army was out before the battle had even begun. Luffy cracked his neck and walked forward.

"But I'm not going to make it any easier for you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE (22/11/20): And the muse is gone. As if that wasn't enough, life isn't going spectacularly at the moment either. Not a health issue, don't worry. More of a... socio-economic issue. Probably won't be updating for a long long time. If ever. I hope I do though. I liked writing this story at the time.
> 
> Any comments posted will still be read by me though. Thanks for the support! Just don't expect updates any time soon. I'm really really sorry.


	2. Metempsychosis

The multiverse theory states that there exists countless universes parallel to our own. Those universes may follow the same history that ours did or they may have their own unique history.

The changes that occurred in one when compared to another may be anything. Something small like someone in the world having a different breakfast than he would have had otherwise or perhaps something larger.

Such as a boy being born with the memories of his adult self.

Such was the case with little Monkey D. Luffy who had a consistent headache for the first couple years of his life which made him cry more than other children his age.

But the headache soon ceased to be as Luffy grew older. At the age of five, he was completely liberated from the pain.

However, Garp was even more worried than before. Ever since his grandson was cured of the apparent pain in his head, the boy had went into depression for some reason. He would often sit on his bed and sulk.

So Garp decided to cheer him up the only way he knew how.

Namely, by throwing him into a ravine.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, GRANDPA?!" Luffy shouted three days later as he stuck to Garp's face and pounded on his head with his tiny arms.

"Bwahahaha! So you're back to normal after all! Bwahaha!" Garp laughed like a madman.

"You aren't though! Who throws their grandson off a cliff and tells him to 'cheer up'!? I'll bite you for that!" Luffy proceeded to chomp down on Garp's left ear.

"Gah! Get off brat!"

Ever since then, Garp was relieved to see that his grandson had turned into a fine and boisterous little boy. Just as loud as himself and having an appetite just as big as himself, the boy grew up well. Perhaps the best thing to come out of that was that he now listened to Garp quite well.

"Do hundred pushups!"

"Aye!"

"Lift that boulder!"

"Aye!"

"Become a marine!"

"Screw yourself!"

Well, mostly.

Luffy was incredibly passionate when it came to training, often times pushing himself above and beyond what even Garp asked of him.

He was also incredibly hostile when it came to the topic of Marines. Although he wouldn't say anything when talking about them generally, any insinuation of him becoming one was met with resistance that almost implied that he'd rather die than become a Marine. When asked 'what else', he replied 'pirate'.

Naturally, this didn't go over well with Garp.

"Marine!"

"Pirate!"

"Marine!"

"Pirate!"

"Marine!"

"Pirate King!"

"Brat, that's even worse!"

Garp decided that his grandson was a lost cause. But he trained him anyway since he sincerely hoped that his grandson would stay safe in the future, even as a pirate.

And despite the occasional argument on the topic of marines and pirates, they grew closer and had their moments of serious conversation.

"Grandpa, who's my dad?"

"Monkey D. Dragon. He's a good-for-nothing whose only good deed was giving me a grandson!"

"Shishishi!"

Or sometimes, some not-so-serious conversation.

"Grandpa, what's the D in my name?"

"Do I look like I know!? I'm not the one who named you!"

"But you have the same thing too!"

"I'm not the one who named me either!"

Through it all, they became comfortable with each other. And when it was eventually time for Garp to get back to work, he left Luffy in the care of the local bartender, a woman called Makino.

"Take care of him, Makino! And you better behave, Luffy!"

"I hope you get lost in a desert!"

"Wha-! Come here, you brat!"

Makino stood to the side and simply smiled at the two riling each other up. She was relieved that the boy she was looking after had become much happier than the last time she saw him.

Eventually, Garp left after some liberal usage of his Fist of Love leaving Luffy grumbling while rubbing his head. Sometimes he really missed his rubber powers, not that it would save him from his grandpa's fist.

Luffy went back to training afterwards.

It had taken him some time to get used to the fact that he had effectively transmigrated into his own body. Once his aching head wasn't a distraction anymore, he had went into depression when he thought about how thoroughly he had failed to protect his crew.

That lasted until his grandpa had seen fit to throw him off a cliff. It was during the hike back up that Luffy came to the realization that at the current point in time, all of his crew were still alive and well. That fact was what ultimately cheered him up and cured his depression.

He then easily came to the decision that he couldn't let them down again this time around. With this decision, he actually listened to his grandpa when he tried to train him this time.

Luffy already knew that Garp's training regimen was, in a word, monstrous.

But Luffy's own dedication to training redefined the word monstrous.

Constantly fighting against predatory animals ten times his size, one versus one or one versus many, handicapped by heavy boulders or wading through shallow water, and sometimes even with a hungry stomach. Luffy trained himself above and beyond anything he'd ever tried in his previous childhood.

One thing he noticed early on was that all three forms of his Haki were shot to hell.

Conqueror's Haki wasn't so bad since it depended on pure willpower and after he got out of his depressed state with a renewed determination, it was almost as if it was back to normal.

Armament on the other hand was severely crippled, leaving him only able use it to a minor degree and completely unable to use its Hardening aspect. The reason being that Armament Haki depended on a combination of willpower and body strength.

Observation was hit the hardest since it depended on a combination of willpower and the body's senses. While Luffy's inherited memories may have included the reflexes and instincts of his older body, they were intrinsically different from those of his current body and simply didn't help as much.

His younger body did indeed have limitations in the case of body strength and senses.

However, the good news was that they could still be improved.

And thus Luffy trained.

He trained and trained every day until one day, the sleepy village of windmills was visited by a pirate crew.

* * *

"Hey, Makino! Who's the brat?"

Luffy felt terribly nostalgic looking at Shanks. But he wasn't about to let that stop him from retorting.

"Who're you calling brat?! You're the brat, you red bastard!"

"Dahahaha! He's got spunk!" Shanks laughed along with his crew as he drank straight from the bottle.

"Oh, that's Luffy. He's Garp-san's grandson." Makino said absently as she served a drink to Benn Beckman who nodded in thanks.

Shanks spat out his drink and looked incredulously at the kid that was apparently the grandson of the Hero of the Marines.

 _Old captain Roger's weird luck has apparently rubbed off on me._ Shanks rubbed his face and decided to introduce himself. "Well kid, I'm Shanks and this is my crew. We're the Red-Hair Pirates!"

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy! And aren't you the only one with red hair in your crew?"

"Yes and I'm the captain. That's why we're called the Red-Hair Pirates."

"How can the other guys be Red-Hair Pirates? They don't have red hair!"

"No, you're missing the point, kid. I'm. The. Captain."

"You're stupid!"

"Oi!"

They immediately hit it off. In just a small while, Luffy and Shanks along with his crew were laughing and eating and drinking happily. Makino made sure to keep any alcohol out of Luffy's reach despite his attempts to snatch some.

Over the next few days, the friendly pirate crew continued to visit Makino's bar and enjoyed their days having strange and funny arguments with the kid there. Luffy had temporarily put his training on hold to spend time with Shanks and his crew.

He listened to Lucky Roux's boasts.

"I once lifted a whale with my own hands and roasted it over a giant spit! It tasted glorious!"

"Wooah!"

He marveled at Yasopp's skill.

"That was over a mile away! And you still hit it!"

"Hehe. Told ya."

He enjoyed Benn Beckman's company.

"That cloud looks like a chicken leg! It makes me hungry..."

"Haha. Then let's go get some, shall we?"

"Yeah!"

And he screwed around with Shanks.

"Take me with you!"

"No!"

"Please!"

"No!"

"I'm brave enough to put a knife to my face! Take me!"

"What the-? Stop that, dumbass!"

Despite the small incident of Luffy attempting to maim himself, all of them enjoyed the relaxing sleepiness of the windmill village.

Eventually one day, Lucky Roux came to Shanks sitting beside Luffy and gave him a box "Here, captain. Found this nearby."

Shanks opened the box and saw a devil fruit. Before he could even decide anything, Luffy grabbed it and was stuffing it in his mouth.

Everyone around watched in morbid horror as Luffy swallowed.

There was silence.

"Yuck."

And that opened the floodgates.

"Luffy! Spit it out!" Shanks grabbed him and tried to make him gag.

"What's the big deal? It's just a fruit. Pretty disgusting though." Luffy said with an eager grin as he waited for the effects to show.

Shanks either didn't notice or didn't care about the grin on the boy's face as he grabbed his legs and held him upside down and shook him. "Spit it out, Luffy! Spit it out! That thing's dangerous!"

Then Luffy's neck stretched and his face smacked into the floor.

There was silence again.

"Whoaaaa!" The pirate crew shouted in delight.

"Read the mood, shitheads!" Shanks yelled at his crew as he put Luffy right side up and on his feet. The boy's head snapped back above his shoulders and he blinked multiple times.

Then Luffy grinned "Cool!"

"Do you have any idea what that was, Luffy?" Shanks asked with a sigh and then proceeded to give a crash course on devil fruits and their effects.

"Now do you get it? You want to be a pirate but you'll never be able to swim again!" Shanks said worriedly.

"But I'm rubber now so it's ok!" Luffy replied with a bright grin. To emphasize his point, he pulled his cheeks away from his face and they stretched to compensate, his smile now looking positively silly.

"Pff-!" Shanks tried not to but he broke out laughing at the sight. The people who were accused of not reading the mood joined him.

This however was interrupted by the door to the bar opening with a loud bang. Everyone grew quiet as a tall man walked in followed by a few rough looking people.

"Woman. Give us ten barrels of sake and I'll leave this place without any trouble." The lead figure said to Makino.

Makino fidgeted for a moment and went to the back room. She returned a moment later with a single barrel. She set it down in front of him and stood in place making no move to get more.

The man looked at the barrel then glared at the woman "I said ten barrels. Not one. You deaf, woman?"

Makino smiled apologetically "I'm sorry but this is the last of the drinks we have."

"Huh? Then what's all this?!" He angrily gestured at the drinks all around him being drunk by the Red-Hair Pirates.

"Hey, hey, relax. Here, you can have this bottle for yourself." Shanks offered up a bottle of sake as a peace offering.

But evidently, the man wasn't interested in peace.

Higuma and his men left a few minutes later having trashed some furniture and thoroughly insulted Shanks.

Back in the bar, Shanks was trying to give some money to Makino "Come on. Just take it. That idiot didn't even pay for the barrel. And besides, you'll need the extra to replace the tables."

Makino tried to refuse but his points were all true and she did need the money after all. She reluctantly took the money and bowed to him while thanking him profusely.

Shanks waved her off and sighed. His crew wasn't lacking money so this was the least they could do. He drank the little sake that was left in the bottle and set it down with a burp. Well, what now?

"Guys..." Shanks and everyone else turned to Yasopp who had spoken "Where's Luffy?"

There was silence as everyone looked around in search of the newly rubberized human boy. He was nowhere to be found.

Shanks was the first to catch on. "Shit." He scrambled off the chair and ran out the door in a hurry. Benn Beckman was right behind him. The rest of the crew also quickly realized the situation and scrambled to follow.

Shanks followed the trail of villagers moving towards the same place and quickly came upon a scene much different than what he expected.

Bodies were strewn everywhere. There were all still living of course but they were thoroughly beaten into unconsciousness. Some of the bodies were hanging off of roof ledges and one was even stuck halfway inside a wall.

In the middle of it all, Luffy was holding a fallen Higuma by the collar and shouting at him while punching his face repeatedly.

"Apologize to them! Apologize to Shanks! Apologize to Makino! Apologize to them, you piece of shit! Apologize!"

Someone grabbed his wrist before it could hit again. Luffy turned to the interloper with anger in his eyes but slumped when he realized who it was.

"Shanks..." Luffy was on the verge of tears. He let go of Higuma and the man hit the ground, already unconscious long ago.

The red-haired man picked up the boy in a hug and carried him back towards the bar. "Clean the place up." He said as he passed his crew. Some of them split off from the group to do just that as the rest followed behind their captain silently.

 _This kid has a lot of anger in him. What happened to him?_ He set the boy down on a stool while Makino quickly gave him a glass of juice. Shanks nodded to her in thanks.

"Hey, Luffy. Did I ever tell you about the Grand Line?" He asked with a smile.

He was rewarded with the boy looking up in interest, his eyes covered by a wet sheen. And so, Shanks proceeded to tell him stories of his adventures in the greatest sea in the world. About Paradise. About the New World. About islands in the sky and islands under the sea.

Tales of creatures, strange and exotic. Tales of places, beautiful and unique. Tales of people, strong and memorable.

And Luffy laughed. He laughed and laughed.

And he cried. He cried and cried.

No one made a comment about his cries, so filled with grief that it shocked them.

Instead, everyone chipped in their own stories. Their own wondrous adventures before and after joining the crew.

Everyone spoke and spoke late into the evening.

* * *

Luffy lay sleeping with his head buried in his arms on the bar counter having cried himself hoarse. Makino put a blanket on him for now to wait until she cleaned up the place.

Meanwhile, Shanks was sat with his first mate at a table drinking slowly from a cup.

Benn Beckman put his cup down gently "Captain?"

Shanks hummed as he glanced at the sleeping form of the boy that his crew had all grown surprisingly close to. His eyes were sharp as he turned back to his first mate.

"I hope I find whoever made him like this. I want to have words with him."

Red sparks danced across the sword by his side.

* * *

Ever since his rebirth, despite the fact that Luffy was happy for his crewmates currently being safe, he had never allowed himself to think of what he had lost.

True, Akainu had killed two of his crew and he had come to terms with his failure to protect them while he was imprisoned.

But until now, it hadn't hit Luffy that by dying to save them, it wasn't just his remaining crew losing him but himself losing them as well.

Because despite them being alive now, they were not the same crew that he shared all those memories with. They were not the same crew who he had laughed and cried and fought alongside.

They didn't even know him right now.

Higuma insulting pirates was just pulling the trigger. Shanks talking about the places he visited, that Luffy knew he himself had visited with his crew, was the spark. And everything came pouring forth with a bang.

Luffy mourned.

He mourned for everything and everyone he had lost. He mourned for the friends he would never see again.

He cried.

He cried for Chopper who he could not protect in battle.

And he cried for Nami who he failed to save from becoming a hostage, who he failed to protect from getting killed regardless of surrender.

Luffy cried and mourned and grieved.

And then, he made a promise. To protect them better this time. To protect them unfailingly.

To become one who could fight the entire world if he had to.

* * *

Shanks stood beside Luffy as he watched his crew carry the supplies onto their ship for their next adventure. It was nice relaxing for a while in East Blue but everyone craved the chaos of the Grand Line by now.

The man turned to the boy who was looking at the sea longingly. Shanks knew the feeling himself and he was happy to see it on the face of someone else. "Luffy."

The boy turned to him but stubbornly looked away the next moment. Shanks grinned and ruffled his hair "We're leaving now. The next time you hear about us will probably be as the greatest pirates you've ever known."

A vein bulged on Luffy's head as he turned back to Shanks with a petulant glare "You wish! I'll make my crew the greatest pirates ever! I'll surpass you and become the Pirate King!"

Pirate King. The words echoed in Shanks' ears. He smiled "Surpass us, huh? Then..." He took off his precious straw hat and put it on the kid's head.

"After you become the Pirate King, bring this hat back to me." He took his hand from the boy's head and politely ignored his shaking shoulders. _Captain Roger, I hope you don't mind._ He thought with a slight grin.

Luffy sniffed and held the straw hat on his head tightly. This hat was his only connection to Shanks but it was also his only connection to his lost past as well.

Because he would always be Straw Hat Luffy, be it the past, present or the future. From the very beginning to the very end, his crew would always be the Straw Hat Pirates.

A few minutes later, Luffy was waving the Red-Hair Pirates goodbye with one hand while holding a paper with the other.

_A map of East Blue? Sure. Hey Yasopp, get me a map of East Blue!_

Luffy looked at the map and spotted the Conami Islands halfway across the sea from where Dawn Island was. He gripped the map tighter.

His vacation was over. It was time to get back to training.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure when is a good time to say this but I've forgotten the details of a majority of the old episodes of the series. As such, much of my knowledge is from reading other fanfics. Some of the strange details from some events may be different because of this but I'd like to think it falls within the Canon Divergence tag.


	3. All In Good Fun

"You've grown strong, haven't you Luffy? Look at all those tiny little abs! Bwahahaha!" Garp laughed loudly as he walked up the mountain trail.

Luffy kept pace by his side. Because of his rigorous exercise, Luffy had taken to tying his shirt around his waist since it always got wet with sweat. Thus Luffy was left with a straw hat on his head, a bare chest, shorts on his legs with his shirt trailing behind them like a waist coat, and sandals on his feet.

Luffy thought he looked ridiculous for his age but he didn't really care about his fashion choice when he was training. And at the current moment, he wasn't thinking about his clothes at all.

He skipped next to his grandpa with a grin. He was going to meet Ace now! And Sabo! And Dadan and the guys! It was a family reunion!

Eventually, Garp knocked heavily on a wooden door which was opened with a shout by a big woman.

Some threatening and explanation later, the Dadan family was left staring with open mouths at Monkey D. Luffy, the grandson of their benefactor and tormentor. Luffy proudly lifted his chest with a grin and his hands on his waist.

He was rewarded by spit on his face for his troubles.

Luffy turned incredulous eyes at Ace sitting on a large dead animal. _Did you just spit on me?! And I was so excited to see you again!_

Then again, it was Luffy's own fault for expecting a heartfelt reunion filled with tears and laughs. This wasn't the same Ace after all.

"Ah, Ace! There you are. This is my grandson, Luffy. He'll be living with you from now on. Take care of him!" Garp all but ordered him jovially.

"Hmph." Ace turned his head.

He was punched off his perch in reply.

Ace hit the ground behind the dead boar. He quickly rushed out from behind it and stared disbelievingly at the new kid casually pulling his stretched hand back towards himself and to its normal length.

"What the heck is that!?" Ace and the Dadan family shouted in sync. Garp laughed at them all.

"I ate a devil fruit, the Gum Gum fruit! My body is made of rubber now and can stretch!" Luffy pulled the corners of his mouth to comical lengths for emphasis.

Ace gaped for a moment but quickly caught himself and glared at him. Then he leapt towards the rubber boy with violence on his mind.

Luffy caught both of his fists in his own hands and grinned at Ace from under his hat as both of them stood their ground and pushed against each other.

Ace took a step back.

Then both of them were hit over the head by Garp. "Stop that! Take my Fist of Love and play nice!"

Both boys crouched and held their heads with equally pitiful moans.

"Now then, I'll be leaving you lot! I took some time off to get here, after all. Ace! Luffy! Both of you behave!"

"Go away, gramps..." Ace muttered his goodbyes.

Luffy gave a wordless but similar sounding groan.

"Bwahaha!" Garp wasn't offended at all and walked off with a wave and a laugh.

Then Luffy stood up, adjusted the hat on his head and ran off into the woods.

Ace and the Dadan family could only stare. Then Ace grunted and pulled the giant dead boar he'd caught towards the house.

Dadan only shook her head. "Well, he'll be back when he's hungry." she said and walked inside followed by her underlings.

It was a few minutes later that there was a loud knock on the door.

"Who is it now?!" Dadan stomped towards the door, fully intending to shout the offender to death.

Instead, she received a face full of fur as she opened the door. Stumbling back with a sneeze, the Dadan family watched in varying degrees of incredulity as the rubber boy who ran off earlier carried in a boar of about the same size as the other one in the room.

Ace's eye twitched.

Luffy set the boar down and said to Dadan while pointing at it "Meat. Food. Meat."

Curly Dadan rolled her eyes to the sky "Kill me now, there's two of 'em..."

* * *

"Stop, Ace! Wait for me!"

"Why are you following me?! Go away!"

"No!"

Ace jumped from one hanging vine to another as he swung his way through the forest. He was followed by a determined Luffy following him on the ground, running and jumping across all hurdles.

Ace ran across a hanging bridge quickly and cut the rope supports once he reached the other side. Luffy slid to a stop and stared blankly as the bridge fell down into the ravine below.

"What did that bridge ever do to you?" Luffy asked humorously.

"Hmph." Ace grunted and continued on his path.

Luffy pulled back his arm, ready to throw it to the other side of the ravine and continue the chase but was interrupted by his stomach growling.

He cancelled his plan of jumping to the other side and held his belly. Luffy looked at the direction where Ace went and smiled "Tomorrow then."

Luffy continued to chase Ace through the jungle every day.

"Why do you still chase me, dammit?!"

"Because I'm alone and I don't want to be!"

Every time, Ace would somehow or the other give Luffy the slip. And every time, Luffy would stop in his tracks and decide not to chase further even if he could.

Every day, Luffy would spend some of his time chasing Ace and spend the rest of his time continuing his training alone.

Because as much as he wanted to talk to Ace and spend time with him, Luffy wouldn't forgive himself if he slacked off in his efforts to become stronger.

Despite that, he kept a close eye on Ace and Sabo. To be sure they were safe at their hideout.

So the days continued to pass until one day, Luffy spotted a large group of armed people passing through the jungle.

At first, Luffy paid it no mind and went back to his training. People passing through the mountain jungle wasn't terribly uncommon despite this particular group being larger than usual.

But about an hour later, Luffy suddenly realized what direction they were headed in.

Towards Ace and Sabo's hideout.

* * *

Ace smacked his pipe into the neck of another pirate who went down clutching his throat. He looked around and found Sabo being manhandled by three people at once.

Ace leapt towards them and hit his pipe on one of their heads from behind. Sabo used the other two's distraction to crash the edge of his pipe into the face of another one.

Sabo and Ace turned to the remaining one but before either of them noticed, Ace was kicked in the face by yet another pirate and went flying.

Meanwhile, Sabo jumped back and threw a wooden ball at one of the pirates. The man caught the ball out of instinct and looked at it before it suddenly exploded and showered him and his companion with wooden splinters. Both of them stumbled back, clutching their faces and screaming.

Sabo took the opportunity to approach again and hit both of their heads with his pipe. He didn't stick around to see their fate and ran to help Ace.

Ace and Sabo had both been counting the loot from Ace's latest run just a few minutes ago. While initially scared that Ace had stolen from an actual pirate, Bluejam, Sabo had listened to his reassurances and sat down with him to calculate the value.

But that peace didn't last long before their hideout was invaded by many dozens of pirates wielding knives and clubs. While they managed to shift the fight a bit away from their hideout, there were simply too many people to get out of this fight unscathed. And that was without factoring in Porchemy who was standing to the side and waiting.

Sabo smacked his pipe into the balls of the pirate holding Ace by his throat and watched in satisfaction as he crumbled to his knees. He quickly helped Ace back up and stood ready for the next enemy. "You ok?"

"Yeah." Ace coughed and spat to the side before he turned a glare on the incoming pirates as he stood next to Sabo. It was doubtless that they were slowly losing but he'd be damned if he made it any easy for them to get at the money he and Sabo had managed to collect over the years.

He watched Sabo attack towards the left and Ace himself went for the right. Unexpectedly, his target deflected his pipe to the side and kicked him in the chest.

Ace hit the ground on his back and let out a gasp of pain.

He watched in distress as the pirate brought down the knife towards his chest.

_Shit!_

A fist crashed into the cheek of the pirate above him with heavy force. Ace watched in almost slow motion as the man's face rippled with the power behind the fist before he abruptly shot across the clearing they were fighting in.

Ace's eyes followed the man as he ploughed into two other people, one of them being the one Sabo was fighting, and all three crashed into a large boulder at the edge of the clearing. Sabo looked bewildered by the interruption.

Ace quickly got back up and watched as the fist shot backwards along the trail of the long _long_ arm before it snapped into place next to a bare chest.

He watched wide-eyed as Monkey D. Luffy grinned and jumped into the chaos, his arms and legs stretching and flying all over the place, punching, kicking and throwing people all around the clearing.

Ace ducked as a pirate went flying over him with such force that when he turned around to look back, he found the man stuck halfway inside a tree.

"What kind of power..." Ace mumbled in awe as he watched Luffy roundhouse kick an extended leg into a group of people and send them all flying.

" _That's_ the kid you're staying with? Holy hell." Sabo said as he reached Ace's side and watched the new kid shoot a fist out that hit a pirate halfway across the clearing.

"I never knew..." Ace replied.

And he didn't. He never knew that Luffy was so strong. He never knew that he was holding back when chasing Ace across the forest.

He watched the boy shoot out his hands with speeds that he'd never seen him use when swinging from the trees. He saw him move around and between people at speeds that easily surpassed those Ace had seen him move at when running behind him.

It suddenly hit Ace sharply that all those times Ace had told him to stop following him, Luffy had actually stopped following him of his own will. He actually listened to Ace despite his exclamations of not doing so.

" _Because I'm alone and I don't want to be!"_

His hands tightened.

Once every pirate in the clearing was down, Luffy looked towards Ace with a smile which quickly turned into alarm.

"Ace! Watch out-"

Suddenly Ace was lifted by his throat from behind. As he gasped for breath, he watched another fist backhand Sabo away.

Ace tried to pry the hand away from his throat but it tightened and left him almost unable to breathe.

Luffy dashed towards Porchemy but stopped when the man tightened his grip on Ace's neck in warning. "Let him go!" He snarled at the older pirate.

"I don't think so." Porchemy slightly relaxed his grip on the boy's neck. "Who are you? What is your connection to these thieves?" He demanded menacingly.

Luffy stayed silent and ready to jump at any opportunity.

"Very well. Don't answer." Porchemy said ominously.

Luffy's fledgling Observation Haki gave him just enough time to shift his body favorably before he was suddenly stabbed in the back.

He grunted painfully as he spied a pirate with a swollen cheek and a bleeding nose bending over his head and smiling at him. "Sorry, kid. Porchemy-san's orders." he wheezed.

Luffy backhanded him across the face and sent him flying, this time thoroughly down for the count.

He then looked down and saw the very tip of the knife just slightly poking through his front next to his stomach. Luckily, Luffy had had just enough time to shift his body so that the knife didn't hit any organs.

But a knife wound was still a knife wound and Luffy cursed himself for not having advanced far enough in Armament Haki to instinctively coat areas of impact with it. As it was, he was only able to coat his limbs with it and hit people harder than he'd otherwise be able to.

Luffy looked up at the enemy pirate once more with a glare. The man smirked at him "Our job was to only find and get the blond brat. You two however-" he pointed at Luffy with the struggling Ace in his hand "-are expendable."

Ace witnessed Luffy's eyes suddenly sharpen to an unbelievable degree.

"Get your dirty hands..." Ace saw red sparks jump across the boy's body.

" _-OFF MY BROTHER!_ "

A wall of force exploded out of his body and Ace watched as the grass between them bent in his direction as a wave of _something_ rushed towards him.

Ace closed his eyes in trepidation.

He felt a gentle breeze.

He waited and waited. But nothing happened.

As he slowly opened his eyes, Porchemy's grip around his neck abruptly loosened and Ace suddenly fell down with a yelp.

He landed on the ground on his feet but had to quickly scramble out of the way as the giant man behind him fell forward on the ground.

Ace panted as he looked at the pirate whose eyes had rolled up into his head and was clearly unconscious.

He then looked towards his presumed savior and saw him pulling out the knife stuck in his back with gritted teeth.

"Luffy!" Ace ran towards him and caught him just as he tipped forward and almost fell.

"Sabo?!" He turned and looked at the blond boy who was slowly getting up with a hand holding his cheek.

"I'm ok. Just a bad bruise in the making." Sabo said as he stood up and shook his head.

"Great. Go get the kit. Luffy was stabbed." Ace said hurriedly.

The words shocked the blond boy into cognizance and he quickly made his way to their hideout to get the first aid kit they'd assembled.

"I'm fine... no biggie..." Luffy grinned slightly as he held onto Ace with a hand on the wound on his back right.

"No you're fucking not! That's a stab wound, you dumbass! Not a fucking bruise!" The freckled boy shouted in consternation. He sighed in relief as Sabo brought the kit they used to store bandages and other medical stuff they'd found.

Luffy grinned but stayed silent as the other two boys focused on cleaning the wound on his back as best as they could before tying multiple layers of bandages around his waist.

Ace clapped his hands and looked at the job well done as Sabo put the remaining bandages back in the kit "All done."

Luffy looked at the bandage around his waist and groaned at seeing the shirt hanging from his waist having gotten drenched with blood. _Well at least it isn't torn. I can't stitch if my life depended on it._

He turned left and right to see how much it hurt. Ace hit him over the head and shook a fist at him "Don't move, stupid! We _just_ stopped the bleeding. Don't go opening it up again!"

"Shishishi, sorry sorry." Luffy said with a smile and a head scratch.

An awkward silence fell as no one knew what to say next.

"Sabo! Are you ok? Your face is swelling!" Luffy suddenly shouted in worry.

"Ah, it's ok. It hurts a little but I've had worse." Sabo looked at him curiously "By the way, how do you know me?"

Luffy crossed his arms "Of course I know you! I found you guys and your hideout a long time ago."

"Really?" Ace asked doubtfully since he was sure that Luffy had never followed him all the way. Sabo just blinked in surprise.

"Yes, really! Who do you think left you that boar that one day when both of you were too busy to hunt?" Luffy asked with puffed cheeks.

"That was you?!" Both Ace and Sabo burst out in surprise.

"Of course it was me! Who else did you think it was?"

"I just thought it was Ace." Sabo said with a shrug.

"I thought it was Sabo." Ace said with his own shrug.

There was another silence as Luffy stood pouting with his arms crossed.

"Did you mean what you said?" Ace asked softly after a moment.

"About what?" Luffy tilted his head.

Ace gripped his hands tighter "You called me your brother." He said almost accusingly.

"Because you are." Luffy said as if it was a fact.

"It's not that simple!" Ace shouted in anger. "Just because we're living together doesn't make us brothers! Do you even know who my father is?!" he yelled.

Ace panted as he vented the emotion he'd built up through this entire battle. The frustration of almost losing a fight and then watching someone younger than him beat back the enemy single-handedly culminated in an outburst directed at an entirely different topic. Sabo stayed silent and watched them.

When Ace looked at Luffy for an answer, he saw him looking unimpressed.

"You're you. You're Ace and that's all I know or care about. Grandpa put us together and we're living together."

Luffy then stomped right up to Ace's face and glared at him.

"And why should I even care who your father is?!"

Ace stumbled back in shock. He stared at Luffy as the words repeated themselves in his head again and again.

He fell on his butt as he tried and failed to see any hints of trickery on the rubber boy's face.

"So you're now my brother! And you get no say in the matter." Luffy suddenly turned and pointed at Sabo "And Sabo! You're my brother too so don't get any ideas!"

Sabo put his hands up in surrender with a smile.

Ace stubbornly looked away and muttered "Whatever."

Luffy put his hands on his waist and grinned at his success.

Sabo clapped his hands once "How about a round of introductions? I'm Sabo and I'm gonna be a pirate!"

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy and I'm gonna be the Pirate King!" Luffy jumped on the topic.

"Dream on, I'll be way ahead of ya. Portgas D. Ace, future pirate." Ace said as he got up and dusted off his shorts. Then he smirked at Luffy "For the record, my father is Gold Roger, the last pirate king and world-class criminal." He ended bitterly.

"Oh! My dad's the leader of the Revolutionary Army, Dragon! He's a criminal too." Luffy said as if completely unbothered by both of their respective parentage.

Ace and Sabo stared at him.

Luffy gave them a bright grin.

A random pirate groaned.

Ace laughed.


	4. Beyond Strength

"Oi –Ace! Mama bear's coming!"

"What! What the hell did you do, Sabo?! Where were you?" Ace yelled in surprise as he jumped over a wolf that dashed his way. Stepping on its back, Ace jumped again while hitting its head with his pipe. The wolf's head crashed on the ground and the beast slid forward on the mud.

"I may have accidentally, ever so slightly... touched her baby." Sabo replied as he ducked and slid underneath a wolf while knocking its lower jaw with his pipe as he passed by. The wolf stumbled unsteadily and fell down with its limbs spread.

"Dammit! Why did you go and do that?! And why did you lead it here?! And where's Luffy?" Ace paused and looked around. His eyes bulged as he spotted the rubber boy. "Luffy! Get your head out of that thing's mouth! What are you doing?!"

"I swear I saw something shiny in its mouth!" Luffy replied as he kept both his legs on the alpha wolf's lower jaw while he held its upper jaw with one hand. Standing in the open mouth of the beast, Luffy used his right hand to fumble in search of something deeper.

The poor beast stumbled around trying to close its mouth desperately but being completely unable to.

"What do you mean something shiny?! Its damn teeth?!" Ace shouted in exasperation as he leapt out of the way of a wolf that attacked him from behind. Sabo instead shoved his pipe inside its mouth and the wolf gagged and recoiled with hacking coughs.

"Well I don't - Aha! I see it!" Luffy yelled in delight as his target gleamed in the light once more. The wolf growled and let loose an awkward roar at the human in its mouth.

Luffy gagged "Your breath stinks!" He shot his right hand at the shiny object in the wolf's mouth and forcefully tugged it out of its position.

The alpha wolf yelped in pain and thrashed around, nearly maiming Ace with its claws. Ace scrambled out of its way and poked his pipe into its eye in retaliation with a growl.

Luffy took the chance the beast was stunned to poke his head out with a grin, showing off the object in his hand "Look what I found!"

Sabo looked at the object incredulously "Is that a tooth?"

"A silver tooth!" Luffy replied as he hung on for dear life in the thrashing animal's mouth.

"A _silver_ tooth? I've heard of rich people having a golden tooth but a _silver_ tooth? And that on a wolf?" Sabo asked disbelievingly as he dodged a wolf cub's attempt to bite his leg. He picked up the animal with a raised foot and gently launched it towards one of its kin. The dashing adult wolf abruptly stopped and stood on two feet and used its belly fur to cushion the impact with the cub.

Sabo marvelled at the animal wonder while Ace kicked the side of another wolf as he yelled in annoyance "Why a silver one?! Can't you have found a golden one, Luffy?"

"Hey, don't blame me! Blame the wolf for being too poor to afford one!" Luffy said as he jumped out of the beast's mouth and made a sliding landing on the mud.

The alpha wolf finally closed its slightly bleeding mouth and growled. Then it dashed towards the rubber boy with a roar.

He grinned and tossed the bloody silver tooth in his hand into the air. The wolf stopped running as its eyes followed its plucked appendage upwards but squinted as its eyes caught the sunlight directly.

Luffy took a step forward and propelled himself forward on the slippery mud with a slide, his right hand extended behind him. Once near the wolf, he slammed his returning fist into the beast's lower jaw with a heavy haki-coated uppercut.

The alpha wolf flew back, doing two backflips in the process, and landed in the running stream with a loud splash.

"Couldn't you have done that earlier?!" Ace shouted in exasperation as he jumped out of the way of a claw and made his way over to Luffy.

"But then we wouldn't have found the weird tooth." Sabo said throwing a rock into the open mouth of the wolf chasing Ace and ran over to Luffy while the animal stopped and tried using its paws to remove the rock, which apparently got stuck between its teeth.

Luffy caught the falling tooth and stuffed it in his pocket. He tightened the shirt around his waist and adjusted his hat as the three of them stood back to back and faced off against the remaining dozen wolves surrounding them. Behind the three, the giant alpha wolf floated unconscious while the stream carried it forward.

Before anything more could be said though, a roar echoed out as a giant brown bear stepped out into the area behind the wolves, its eyes dead set on Sabo.

"You know, I actually forgot about that for a moment." Sabo said with sweat dripping off his face.

"I will hurt you." Ace stated matter-of-factly.

The wolves broke ranks and started to flee in fear. Luffy turned around and extended both of his arms to a tree on the other side of the stream. Then he hopped into the air and wrapped both of his legs around Ace and Sabo with a grin.

"Gomu Gomu no..."

Sabo and Ace paled.

"Luffy, don't –"

"Oi, rubberhead! Don't you dare –"

" _Rocket!"_

All three of them shot into the air. They flew over the fast flowing stream and past the tree Luffy had caught while Ace and Sabo screamed all the way.

A few moments of flying through the undergrowth later, Luffy was clinging to a thick tree branch and laughing his head off, Sabo was bobbing up and down from some branches with his clothes having gotten stuck in them, and Ace was sliding down a tree trunk with his face leaving a trail on it.

* * *

Luffy joined Ace and Sabo in their adventures across the mountain and the Gray Terminal. The two old friends considered his entry as both a boon...

" _Well that was easy."_

" _Yeah, they didn't put up much of a fight."_

" _I'm hungry!"_

...and a bane.

" _Why did you feel the need to go bother an entire swarm of honey bees?!"_

" _I'd like to know that as well, Luffy!"_

" _I was hungry!"_

But throughout it all, they had more fun together than ever before.

And along the way, the older two were inspired by the things their younger companion did.

" _Luffy..." Sabo started slowly as if talking to a toddler "Why exactly are you carrying that boulder on your back?"_

" _Training!" Luffy said as he jogged in wide circles around their hideout._

_Sabo stared at him blankly._

" _Gramps is a really bad influence on you, Luffy." Ace mumbled as he sat down and cleaned his trusty pipe with a cloth._

" _I'm still stronger than both of you!" Luffy exclaimed as he made another lap._

_Ace's eye twitched "Sabo, you remember that abandoned stone mine nearby?"_

" _Stone quarry" Sabo corrected absently "Yes, what about it?"_

" _Yeah, that. Let's go get some boulders. I remember seeing ones even bigger than the tiny ones he's carrying." Ace said snidely as he pointed with his thumb at Luffy who was carrying a boulder about as big as his entire body._

_Sabo put his face in his hands and groaned._

And as time passed from days to weeks to months, the three of them grew much closer to each other.

" _From today on, the three of us are brothers!"_

" _You've always been my brothers though!"_

" _Well now, it's official!"_

_The three sipped the sake from their cups. They all gagged in unison._

This continued for a long while.

Until one day, things changed.

* * *

"You alright up there, Luffy?" Sabo asked worriedly.

"Yeah!" Luffy wheezed as he pulled his body upwards from the hanging sit-ups he was doing on a tree branch with a boulder tied to his back.

"Alright then..." Sabo replied. He knew nothing would happen even if Luffy fell, considering that he was rubber, but he couldn't help but worry anyway.

He heard a rustling on the side and watched as Ace slowly walked towards them with his head down.

"Ace? What's wrong? Bad run today?" Sabo asked with a supportive smile.

Ace instead lifted his head and glared at him. Then he stomped towards the blond and grabbed his collar and yelled in his face "When were you going to tell us you were a noble?!"

Sabo froze. Luffy stopped his exercise and hung upside down as he watched the confrontation attentively.

The blond boy reflexively tried to feign ignorance "Wha- What are you talking about?"

Ace gritted his teeth and shook the other boy "I went to the city today to meet a fence. And when I'm coming back, I hear an old guy and a lady talking about how their _poor little Sabo_ has lost his way and that they'd have to send more guys to go and get him." He tightened his grip "The lady was blond."

Sabo didn't know what to say. It was pure bad luck that struck him and he didn't know what to say to redeem himself. He looked down at the ground in silence.

Ace took his silence in a negative way "So you were never going to tell us, is that it? This –" he gestured at the hideout "- is all just a way to pass the time, is it? Were you going to quietly slip away one night without any of us knowing? WAS ALL THIS JUST A GAME TO YOU?!" He yelled.

"Well why don't you spare us the pain and worry and just go away now –" Ace started in anger.

A fist crashed into his cheek hard and Ace's head hit the ground and bounced.

A giant crash resounded as the boulder on Luffy's back hit the ground as he stomped his way to Ace and pulled him up with a glare "Are you stupid?! Do I have to beat some sense into you?! _HE'S OUR BROTHER!_ "

"YOU'D BE ANGRY TOO IF YOU FOUND OUT YOUR BROTHER HAS BEEN LYING TO YOU FOR YEARS!" Ace shouted in retaliation.

"No I wouldn't! It was his secret to tell and even if I knew, I'd wait for him to tell me himself!" Luffy yelled back. Ace seemed frozen by the words and didn't reply.

"Sabo, I-" When Luffy turned to his other brother though, he found him running away into the woods. Luffy let go of Ace and shouted at him "Sabo! Come back! Sabo!"

But he didn't come back. And as Luffy watched him go, he saw tears falling to the ground behind the running boy.

Luffy made up his mind and put his hands next to his mouth and yelled "Sabo! We'll be right here, ok?! We'll be waiting for you! Sabo! _We'll be waiting for you!_ "

Sabo didn't turn back.

Luffy slumped as he watched the blond boy leave his sight and sighed. He turned to Ace who was lying spread-eagle on the ground and looking at the sky blankly.

"I messed up, didn't I?" He asked glumly.

"Yes. Yes you did." Luffy replied, feeling down.

* * *

Luffy laid next to Ace in the Dadan family's house with his arms behind his head, his hat on the floor next to him.

It had been a few days since Sabo had ran away. At the moment, Luffy was thinking back to his previous life.

To be honest, Luffy's memories regarding his previous life were spotty and as for memories of the time when he was a kid in that life, he almost didn't remember anything. Only memorable things like his time with Shanks, becoming brothers with Sabo and Ace, Sabo apparently dying and Ace's promise to never die remained in his head.

Luffy closed his eyes and turned to the side to get some sleep. It didn't work.

A rather significant memory from his previous life kept bothering him. He knew the event and it was indeed significant in many ways but Luffy tried to deny that it would happen again since he and Ace weren't involved this time. But it bothered him because there were any number of ways that it could happen again.

Luffy sat up in a cold sweat as the memory repeated itself in his head. As much as he hoped it wouldn't happen, he knew it was a fool's hope.

He put his hat on his head as he went outside to get some fresh air.

Luffy sat down and leaned his back on a tree. He pulled his legs up and put his head on them as he stared at the evening sky.

_Screams echoed everywhere as the fires roared ever louder._

Luffy closed his eyes and shook.

A hand landed on his shoulder.

His eyes shot open and he turned his head to see Ace sitting next to him with a frown.

"What happened?" Ace asked in worry.

Luffy lowered his head and stayed silent.

"Tell me, Luffy. What happened?" Ace shook him.

Luffy sighed as he looked at the sky again "I had a dream..."

His brother stayed silent as he waited for him to continue.

"I saw the Gray Terminal burn." He said blankly "The entire Gray Terminal, all the trash heaps, the broken down houses, all the people... I saw them burn."

Ace's grip on his shoulder tightened.

"And the nobles closed the gates and ignored them."

* * *

Sabo sat in silent shock as he listened to his parents casually discussing the deaths of hundreds of people.

It had been a few days since he had returned to his family and while Sabo spent the time getting used to the house once more, he ruminated on his decision to return in the first place.

Part of Sabo whispered to him that he came here because he was not wanted where he had been and that he'd have had to leave them eventually.

But Sabo knew enough about himself to know that it was a lie.

It had been to protect them, he knew. After coming back, Sabo had learned that his parents had indeed been planning to send another group of thugs to go and get him after Bluejam's crew failed to do the job.

And Sabo's first instinct had been to demand that they stop their plans as long as he agreed to stay here.

Because as strong as he knew his younger brother to be, Sabo didn't want to test his odds on an actual large pirate crew. If that could be prevented by him just listening to his parents, Sabo would do it happily.

But now...

Sabo returned to his room and stared mutely at the wall not knowing what to do. Soon, hundreds of people were going to die in the name of 'cleaning up the trash'. And he was here, sitting in a shining room filled with expensive antiques.

Sabo thought hard about what he was going to do now.

" _We'll be waiting for you!"_

He made his decision.

* * *

Ace stared ahead blankly for a long while before he was interrupted by a nearby bush rustling. He snapped out of his funk and brandished his pipe "Who's there?!"

He watched Sabo of all people stumble out of the bush and look around in panic. Once the blond boy spotted him, his face lit up before he rushed forward and caught him in a hug "Ace!"

Ace struggled halfheartedly "Sabo..." He made up his mind immediately "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for saying the things I did. Luffy's right. Your secrets are yours to tell and I shouldn't have – shouldn't have –"

"Ace, it's alright. It was my fault for not telling you earlier anyway." Sabo let go of him and took a deep breath. "I need help. My father, he –"

Sabo swallowed uncomfortably "He's hired Bluejam and his crew to set fire to the Gray Terminal. Some bigshot noble is coming to Goa Kingdom soon and he wants to 'clean the trash' so the guy doesn't see it." His hands tightened "He wants to burn everything and everyone in the Gray Terminal alive just because..." He trailed off when he saw Ace frozen on the spot. "Ace?"

The other boy remained wide-eyed as he slowly turned. Sabo looked at the direction he was facing and saw Luffy sitting next to a tree, his straw hat covering his eyes.

"You –" Ace couldn't even muster up the proper words in his shock. Sabo looked between the two in confusion.

Luffy lifted his head and gave them a focused look. "Wake Dadan." He held his hat as he stood up and dusted off his shorts.

"Let's go save some people."

* * *

"What? What's going on?"

"Dammit, you bastards! I was sleeping so peacefully..."

"What's the big deal? Why are we being gathered?"

The people of Gray Terminal stumbled sleepily as they were forcefully awoken and pulled out of their homes by small kids and mountain bandits alike and told to go to the biggest clearing in the area.

As they arrived at the biggest open area in Gray Terminal, they saw almost everyone else living in the Terminal having come there as well.

And in front of everyone, on a small hill, stood the ringleader of the entire affair.

"Hey, Ace! What's the big deal, you midget?! You wanna die?!"

"Damn brat waking everyone up for his childish games..."

Ace ignored the people complaining and took a deep breath. "SHUT UP!" He yelled and the people grew silent as the words echoed around them. Several people shot him a glare carrying violent intent.

But Ace ignored those glares and spoke "There are bombs placed all around the Gray Terminal." He said, loud and clear.

There was silence at the declaration.

Before anyone could speak their minds, Sabo standing next to him spoke next "A bigshot noble is coming to Goa Kingdom in the next few days. The nobles of Goa have decided to burn down the Gray Terminal to 'clean up the trash' and show a clean image to the visitors."

Luffy took a step forward and shouted "They've hired pirates to do their job! The Bluejam Pirates have already placed bombs around the Gray Terminal! And the guards at the city gates were ordered to keep the gates closed so no one gets away –" Luffy's eye suddenly twitched.

A gunshot sounded as everyone watched in horror as the young boy's head shot back with the bullet. Ace and Sabo turned to him in alarm.

The crowd collectively turned and saw the pirate Bluejam holding a smoking gun in his hand aimed at the boy who was just shot. He grinned cruelly "Loudmouths, aren't you? Should have just stayed quiet, kid." He blew on the smoking barrel "Who's next, I wonder?" He said as his eyes roamed over Ace and Sabo while his crew assembled around him.

Dadan stood shocked for a moment in the front of the crowd before her face twisted and she yelled "You! I'm gonna –"

"Was that supposed to do something?" A young voice cut through the crowd.

Almost everyone watched in shock as the boy who was shot slowly brought his head back ahead and the bullet stuck in the boy's forehead popped out harmlessly and fell down.

He cracked his neck and glared at the shocked-looking pirate, his eyes as menacing as the time Ace and Sabo had seen him confront Porchemy.

"You put everyone's lives in danger, including your own, and you came here to brag about it." Luffy showed his teeth "You're annoying."

An invisible power pulsed through the air in a wave and crashed into the entirety of the Bluejam Pirates. Their eyes rolled up into their heads before they fell to the ground haphazardly.

There was silence as everyone witnessed the spectacle before Sabo shouted once more "Hurry! Get your important stuff and run into the forest!"

And right on time, multiple loud explosions rang through the air as different areas of the Gray Terminal started to catch fire.

The gathered people immediately realized the severity of the situation and started running. Some of them even shouted words of gratitude towards the three brothers and the mountain bandits as they ran.

While Dadan busied herself with turning Luffy's head left and right to make sure he wasn't hurt, Sabo sighed and held his face while Ace put a hand on his shoulder "We did what we could." Ace said.

Sabo nodded and looked up "It's all we _can_ do."

* * *

The next morning, some soldiers of the kingdom combed through the mounds of ash as workers poured in behind them to clean up the area.

"There are much fewer corpses than I thought there would be." One said as he moved a fallen beam to the side and looked at the burnt husk of a man dispassionately.

"Reckon they all got burnt to ashes?" Another asked casually.

"Probably not. They must have run away into the forests at the first sign of trouble." The first one said as he left the husk to be dealt with by the workers and moved forward.

"Not our problem." The leader of the group said as he walked in the front "Everything's burnt and the trash is gone. That's all we care about."

Most of his followers nodded enthusiastically but some of them kept their heads down and stayed silent.

Later in the evening, Sabo quietly packed various things from around the hideout in a bag.

A few moments later, he stood in front of the hideout and looked at it with emotion.

This place had been his home for many months and years now. Sabo reminisced about the various memories, good and bad, that had occurred in this place and smiled.

Sabo had been so alone the first few weeks after he'd run away from home but after he'd met Ace, his days had been so much more fun. And after Luffy had come along, they had been positively unforgettable.

_Brothers._

Sabo smiled at the hideout and turned around.

He ended up staring straight at Luffy and Ace standing right behind him.

Sabo froze, the bag on his shoulder feeling much heavier than before. He shrugged it off and tried to smile "You should put on your shirt at night, Luffy. It gets pretty cold, you know."

Luffy stood silent with his arms crossed and looking at him. Ace stood next to him as he stared at the bag on Sabo's shoulder accusingly.

"How come you guys are here? Shouldn't you be asleep?" Sabo asked softly, not making any move to hide the bag.

Ace looked at him blankly "Luffy had another dream."

Sabo grew worried for a moment "One like last night's? Did he see the future? Is something going to happen again?"

Luffy replied in Ace's place "I saw you leaving. You made use of the distraction tomorrow when the noble visits to slip away on a boat."

The bag on Sabo's shoulder felt heavy again as he stared wide-eyed at Luffy.

"The noble shot you and you died."

The bag slipped off his shoulder and fell to the ground.

Ace stepped forward and grabbed Sabo's collar. He wasn't even able to glare anymore as he just held the boy loosely and spoke tiredly "It's true, isn't it? I didn't believe it when Luffy said so but I wanted to make sure."

His hands loosened as they fell to his side limply "You're leaving, aren't you?" Sabo stayed silent and looked at the ground "Why?"

The blond boy scratched the back of his neck and spoke slowly "I don't want to go back to my parents. But as long as I'm with you guys, he'll keep sending people to get me. You guys will... will always be in danger as long as I'm around. So I thought..."

"So you thought 'if I went away, they'll be safe', is that it?" Luffy spoke up. Sabo didn't reply. "Is us being brothers a joke?"

"Luffy, you don't get it! There are guys stronger than even you out there and we won't be lucky forever!" Sabo shouted in frustration.

"So your brilliant plan is to run and leave us alone?! Without even a goodbye?!"

"I'm sorry for not saying goodbye but what's wrong with running for once?!"

"You'll die!"

"At least I'm going to die on my own terms!" Sabo shouted before suddenly being tackled into the ground by Luffy.

"Oi Luffy, calm down!" Ace said as he tried to hold the rubber boy back from punching the blond.

"STOP BEING SO SELFISH, DAMMIT! You think everything will be over when you're dead? _THINK OF THE PEOPLE YOU LEAVE BEHIND!_ " Luffy yelled as he struggled in Ace's hold.

"WHY DO YOU THINK I TRAIN SO MUCH?! IT'S SO THIS KIND OF STUFF DOESN'T HAPPEN! _IT'S SO I CAN PROTECT MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY! **SO THEY DON'T NEED TO DO THIS KIND OF SHIT TO PROTECT ME!**_ "

Luffy panted as he went limp in Ace's arms. Memories of Robin sacrificing herself to CP9 to protect the crew ran through his mind. Because she was scared they couldn't protect themselves from the World Government's wrath.

Because he was weak.

Sabo lay frozen on the ground as his younger brother's words echoed in his ears. Ace felt just as limp as the boy he was holding after listening to him.

"Just believe in me..." Luffy muttered with a sniffle "I'm not weak. I can train more. I can be even stronger. I can protect you..." Tears fell from his eyes onto the moonlit ground below "Don't leave me alone..."

It struck Sabo in that moment how lonely his younger brother looked. Despite being so strong, despite being powerful enough to take out an entire pirate crew with just a look, despite training every day without fail...

So much power in that tiny body... and all he had to use that power for was his two brothers.

Ace looked at the boy in his arms with complicated emotions. Despite being three years younger than him, Luffy had assigned himself the role of protector for their little trio. He had silently taken on a burden that Ace didn't even know had to be carried.

Ace felt disgusted at his own weakness. He felt disgusted at Sabo's weakness. What was the point of being older brothers if they couldn't even help their youngest brother with his burden?

"Alright." Sabo said suddenly. His two brothers looked at him and he smiled "Alright, I'm not going anywhere."

He stood up with a heave "I'm not letting you do all the protecting on your own." He stated "I'm gonna get stronger too. Strong enough that you don't need to do it all alone." He said.

" _We'll_ get stronger." Ace said as he held the rubber boy tightly "We'll become stronger together. So stop hogging all that burden on your shoulders and share it with us."

Luffy said nothing for a few moments. Then he started to giggle and eventually, he was laughing, tears of a completely different nature flowing down his face.

Ace just hugged him tighter as Sabo came forward and made it into a three-way hug. Between the two older boys, Luffy laughed and cried.

Luffy was perhaps the strongest brother of the three.

But he would forever remain the youngest brother of the three.

And he had no problems with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not good with high emotion scenes. I tried my best with this chapter but I'm still not sure how it ended up to be honest. Hopefully, it's not as bland as I fear it is. Also, kinda obvious but 'dreams' are simply an excuse for future knowledge. It might get repeated a little in the next chapter or two but it won't be an ongoing thing, I promise.
> 
> Next. I have a feeling some people might have been dissatisfied with Ace revealing his parentage so casually last chapter. I'd like to say that first of all, I don't remember the fine details of this entire arc from canon and didn't want to write the entire arc verbatim. Second... children aren't known to have exceptional self-control.


	5. Regardless of Consequences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who watched the english dub version of One Piece:  
>  _Fūsen = Balloon_

Time passed slowly.

Ace, Sabo and Luffy sat on a cliff as they watched a gaudy ship enter the harbour of Goa Kingdom. They watched a fat man dressed in white with a bubble covering his head be carried off the ship on a palanquin.

They watched as the citizens around him bowed, not daring to lift their heads to look straight at the World Noble.

They watched as a commotion broke out for indistinguishable reasons before a commoner was shot to death as a result.

They watched as the nobles of Goa escorted the World Noble to what used to be the entrance of the Gray Terminal.

They watched the man laugh uproariously.

Sabo clenched his fists. Luffy glared at the group of nobles. Ace watched it all, emotionless.

They waited and watched for the entire day as the World Noble finished his business in a matter of hours before he quickly got back on his ship and left the Goa Kingdom.

They watched the nobles of Goa celebrate their success on the harbour by throwing money into the crowd, inducing loud cheers from the commoners.

And at the end of the day, they watched the sun sink slowly into the horizon.

The three brothers watched the sunset silently, none of them having anything to say about the events of the day.

To Sabo, the fact that some people were willing to casually kill off a few hundred other people simply for the sake of showing off an empty plot of land was hard to comprehend.

Ace, on the other hand, wondered if perhaps there were people even worse than pirates in the world.

And Luffy just looked ahead sadly, having expected nothing less from the World Nobles.

* * *

A few days passed in relative peace.

Luffy, as usual, bounced back from the heavy mood of previous days with a vengeance, training even harder than before and eating even more than before.

Perhaps encouraged by their youngest brother’s efforts, the two older brothers started to train more as well. Though contrary to the rubber boy’s method of training all day every day, the older two opted instead to heavily handicap themselves when fighting against the local wildlife.

Because despite being willing to emulate Luffy’s training, they simply didn’t have the constitution that only a devil fruit could provide at such a young age. They were simply unable to train so much despite consuming nearly as much food as their youngest brother.

But regardless, they tried their best.

If nothing else changed, this might have continued. All three might have continued to train themselves, have fun in the mountains, visit Foosha Village to relax, visit the Goa Kingdom to cause trouble and similar such things.

Perhaps this might have continued for many years to come, all the way until they were old enough to leave the island to fulfill their dreams.

This might actually have happened.

If only... nothing changed.

* * *

Luffy stared wide-eyed at the evening edition newspaper Dadan was reading while sipping sake from a cup.

_No_

On the front page was a picture of Arlong. The article spoke of how the notorious fishman had entered the East Blue after being kicked out of the Grand Line by the Warlord Jimbei.

_No_

The article advised caution when encountering fishmen as they were known to be much stronger than the average human, fishmen pirates thus being even more dangerous than regular pirates.

_No no no_

Citizens were advised to contact the nearest Marine base as soon as possible in case the notorious pirates were spotted nearby.

Luffy’s breathing became heavy. He shook his head forcefully as he headed towards his bed. Ace watched him go worriedly, glancing at the newspaper as he passed by.

Neither of them said a word. Ace watched his brother silently while Luffy tried to close his eyes and fall asleep, only partly successful in that regard.

Logically speaking, Luffy knew he shouldn’t be concerned. Despite being under Arlong’s thumb for almost ten years, nothing truly bad happened to Nami in those years and she was relatively safe.

In fact, it was after she’d met Luffy that her life went sideways. Even then, Luffy knew that him defeating Arlong in front of her was what solidified her loyalty to him and the crew in the first place.

Luffy tossed and turned in his bed.

Logically then, he shouldn’t do anything. He should allow fate to run its course until he met Nami again. He should get to know her in the future and give her the choice to ask him for help.

And then he should beat Arlong and free her from her burden.

It would be so perfect. The choice would be hers entirely and if everything went as planned, he would once again have her loyalty.

The entire plan was perfect.

And it disgusted Luffy to his core.

Luffy suddenly sat up in his bed and extended his hand to open the drawer built into the side of the bed. From it, he pulled out a roll of paper.

In the candlelight, Luffy unrolled the paper and stared at the map of East Blue in his hands.

He’d studied this map thoroughly ever since he got it from Shanks. Always anticipating, always worrying.

Once again, his eyes first found Dawn Island. Then they traced the path to the Conami Islands. Just as they’d done many times before.

Luffy rolled up the map and stuffed it in his pocket. He jumped off the bed, one hand grabbing and placing his straw hat on his head, covering his eyes.

Nami did indeed turn out fine in the end. Many factors contributed to that result and the fact that her captain had given her the freedom to ask him for help last time had been one of those factors.

But that was a fallacy.

Nami never _chose_ to have her home invaded by a mad fishman. She never _chose_ to have her friends and family all but kept hostage in exchange for a ransom. She never _chose_ to have her cartography skills acknowledged by him. She never _chose_ to become a slave to his whims.

She was forced to.

“Luffy?” Ace asked as he sat up in his bed in alarm.

Luffy lifted his head as he walked out the house, his face set, his eyes determined. Ace followed behind him in worry. “Luffy, what happened? Another one of those dreams?”

“I’m going on a trip, Ace. I’ll be back soon.” Luffy said as he walked towards the mountain trail leading to Foosha Village, his footsteps echoing in the silence of the forest.

“What?” Ace muttered in confusion before he remembered the map he’d seen his brother stuff in his pocket. The map of East Blue that Ace had often caught him looking at intently.

“Dammit!” Ace swore as he turned around and ran in the direction of their hideout to get Sabo.

Luffy paid him no mind and continued to walk, the cold night wind hitting his bare chest, a glare slowly forming on his face.

Nami never had the choice to live a normal childhood. It was always out of her hands. Slaving herself away to draw maps for the fishman, slaving herself away to gather money to free her home... In the end, it was never her choice.

She was always forced to.

So if Luffy had to choose between either her loyalty or her safety and happiness...

Luffy knew what he’d choose.

And he would make his choice, regardless of the consequences.

* * *

Luffy untied the rope securing the row boat in place. Once done, Luffy uttered a silent apology to the owner of the boat and picked up the oars.

He looked at the direction he had to go. He knew because he’d previously asked the fishermen of Foosha Village how to go about reaching the Conami Islands from Dawn Island.

Luffy started to row in the direction pointed out by the fishermen, hoping against hope that he’d make it in time.

“WAIT FOR US!” Two voices came from behind him and Luffy turned around and stared incredulously as Ace and Sabo came running down the road, their fighting pipes tied to their backs.

They both jumped as they reached the edge of the docks and flew through the air, right towards the bobbing boat.

Luffy snapped out of his shock and inhaled air rapidly.

_“Gomu Gomu no Fūsen!”_

Ace and Sabo smacked into the heavily inflated rubber boy and bounced twice. Luffy then deflated and Ace and Sabo sighed in relief as they landed safely on the boat.

“What are you two doing here?!” Luffy exclaimed in surprise.

“Us?!” Ace rounded on him “What are _you_ doing?! You think we’re just gonna let you go off who knows where without us?! Think again!”

Luffy’s jaw hung loosely as he stared at him in shock.

Sabo stretched leisurely as if the sudden unplanned journey was nothing out of the ordinary “So where are we going?”

Luffy gave up and sighed as he pulled out his map, unrolling it and pointing at the Conami Islands “Here.”

The two older brothers studied the map and observed the path they would have to travel to get there.

Ace nodded and sat back, letting Luffy row the boat since there was only one pair of oars. Sabo followed suit and did the same.

They travelled in silence for a few minutes under the peaceful night sky, the weather being very cooperative for the moment.

“You know...” Ace started casually “You’re gonna have to tell us what’s up with those dreams of yours one day. It’s like you see the future or something.”

Luffy silently rowed the boat for a while before he shook his head “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“So you know what’s going on then.” Sabo said confidently.

Luffy shook his head again “It doesn’t matter. It’s not gonna last much longer anyway.” He stayed quiet for a moment before he continued “I just know that if I don’t do this, I’ll regret it forever.”

The other two shared a glance but decided to let the matter drop. If he didn’t want to talk about it then that was fine. After all, it was his secret to tell.

“Why did you guys follow me anyway? You didn’t even know where I was going.” Luffy asked in a soft voice.

“Because we believe in you.” Sabo said with a smile. Ace didn’t even say that much and just looked at the younger boy in disdain as if asking why he even thought otherwise.

Luffy’s lips unwillingly stretched into a grin, his mood much better than before.

The boat floated forward for some more minutes in silence.

“Luffy, where’s the compass?” Sabo asked blankly.

“Don’t have one.” Luffy replied brightly.

Ace’s eye twitched.

Sabo put his face in his hands “We’re doomed...”

* * *

The first few days passed quickly as the boat moved forward in its path without trouble.

The three set up a rotation on who would row the boat at any given time while the other two rested, Luffy taking up much of the rowing time himself.

They cooperated to catch some fish to eat and used pocket lighters that Ace and Sabo had brought to cook them as much as possible.

Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse on the fourth day as it started to rain.

The rain continued throughout the day and on the next day, after a brief period of cloudy weather in the morning, a storm occurred.

Turbulent winds assaulted the area and the boat swayed alarmingly. The tides became taller and taller as time passed.

At one point, a long eel-like sea king appeared close to their boat.

Luffy was quick to deploy Conqueror’s Haki to try to tame the beast, however that particular sea king was unusually skittish and fled at the first sign of danger.

Thus, the three were left alone to deal with the storm. Wave after wave came towards them. Lightning flashed above their heads. Thunder boomed in their ears.

Three young children on a rowboat in the middle of the sea. Three grains of sand floating on a world filled with water.

And throughout it all, Luffy rowed. He pushed the boat forward with single-minded determination, the will to save his friend being the only thing carrying him forward.

Luffy rowed and rowed through the storm while Ace and Sabo took turns using the only bucket they had to remove the water accumulating in the boat.

Around evening of that day, a particularly tall wave came towards them menacingly, schools of fish being sucked into it as it passed by.

Luffy threw the oars to Ace and stood straight as he watched the wave approach them.

 _“Gomu Gomu no...”_ The rubber boy threw his arms behind him and crouched slightly, the rain hitting his bare back as he steadied himself on the swaying boat.

The wave came ever closer and Luffy waited, his arms continuing to stretch backwards.

The boat began to be sucked towards it.

The tiny vessel started to tilt upwards.

Ace and Sabo stared at the wave defiantly.

Luffy arms briefly flashed black.

_“Bazooka!”_

The wavefront shattered along with a flash of lightning overhead as an aquatic valley opened up in the middle of the wave. The boat launched off the tiny hill of water it had climbed and landed behind the wave entirely.

Ace and Sabo held onto the side of the boat as it landed, Luffy retracting his arms back to him. The two older brothers marvelled for a moment at what just happened but got back to their tasks of rowing and scooping water. Their youngest brother’s power was nothing new to them despite the scale being bigger than before.

Luffy meanwhile stared at his hands. He clenched his fists once more and willed _Armament: Harden_ into them.

His hands briefly blinked black but quickly went back to normal.

_Not yet_

He opened his hands and clenched them again, this time willing plain Armament Haki into them. His hands shined almost invisibly.

_But almost there_

“Luffy!” He looked up at Ace who had called him. The older boy pointed into the distance and when Luffy squinted, he saw something floating in the water far away.

“It’s a ship!” Ace supplied as he rowed forwards even more eagerly than before.

Sabo used his telescope which he always carried with him to observe the ship for a moment “It has a black flag! It’s a pirate ship!” He shouted afterwards.

Luffy grinned.

* * *

_Meanwhile, somewhere in East Blue..._

A ship floated peacefully on the calm waters as several humanoids walked around on deck, working to keep the ship sailing smoothly.

“Damn Jinbe. Who does he think he is? I’ll get that bastard one day...” A saw-shark fishman muttered to himself in anger as he sat on a crate, chewing on a steak viciously.

“Captain! Where are we going?” Another fishman asked.

“To the closest human settlement away from Marines. I’m thinking of settling down for a while.” The first one replied as he took another bite.

The other fishman consulted the map in his hands for a bit before he replied “There’s a set of islands called the Conami Islands nearby. The closest settlement on them is Cocoyashi Village, captain.”

Saw-Tooth Arlong grinned “Then that’s where we’re going.”

* * *

Once they had gotten close enough to the pirate ship, Luffy wasted no time and rocketed himself upwards.

“Oi, Luffy! Dammit. Hurry up Sabo! Let’s go!” Ace shouted as he jumped towards the ship, grabbing onto an embedded ladder as the bigger vessel passed by their boat.

“Right behind you!” Sabo replied as he held onto a window grill. They both made their way upwards, the heavy rain hitting their faces but doing nothing to deter them.

Luffy landed on the deck on both feet. He looked around him for a moment then glared at the most important looking person. Luffy stood straight and cracked his neck, water sliding off his hat in a stream. “You’re the captain?”

The pirate wearing a classic black captain’s coat in front of him pulled out a cutlass and pointed it at the new addition to the ship “Who the hell are you, brat?! How dare you set foot on this captain Cutlass’ ship without permission?!”

“Well, that answers that.” Luffy muttered to himself before he charged forward.

“Kill him! We don’t give a shit if it’s kids or grandmas here!” Captain Cutlass roared at his crew.

One of the pirates jumped in front of him and threw his leg forward to kick the tiny boy but Luffy jumped over the attempt. Putting his smaller legs on the larger man’s extended one, Luffy launched his almost four foot body straight up and twisted as he roundhouse kicked the man’s head with a haki-covered foot.

The pirate flew sideways but while Luffy was still suspended in the air, two men came from both sides with horizontal slashes at his body.

His reflexes enhanced by Observation Haki, the world slowed in his vision for a moment as Luffy suddenly pulled his feet up to his chest and watched the two blades pass beneath him.

The pirates stumbled slightly and Luffy shot both legs towards his sides, a split kick smashing into both pirates’ faces and launching them towards the ship’s railings.

Luffy landed and immediately bent backwards and watched a wooden club pass above him harmlessly. He forced himself back up and cocked his fist.

Before he could hit anyone though, a metal pipe hit the fat club-wielding pirate in the face and threw him into the ground. Sabo stood above him and hit him in the face again for good measure.

Luffy ducked as he evaded a stab attempt by a knife-wielding pirate and swept a leg behind him. The flailing pirate behind him who’d lost his balance was then smacked in the ribs by another pipe and Luffy thought he heard a bone break. Ace jumped and hit his pipe on the man’s mouth, shouting in anger “My brother’s already been stabbed one time too many times, bastard!”

Luffy grinned at both his brothers. Then he sidestepped and evaded a cutlass crashing into where he stood a moment ago.

“More and more of these brats! I’ve had a bad enough day already so just die!” The pirate captain shouted as he slashed at Sabo, the boy parrying it with his pipe but getting thrown to the side because of the difference in strength.

Ace’s pipe crashed into the captain’s leg and he kneeled with a grunt. He stabbed forward and Ace was forced to jump back to avoid the blade.

Captain Cutlass opened his mouth to shout once more but lightning suddenly flashed and in the light, he saw the straw hat boy’s arm stretched behind him and twisted like a corkscrew.

His words got stuck in his throat and as the thunder boomed, only a shocked mutter passed his lips “- Devil fruit?”

_“Rifle!”_

A spinning fist smashed into his face and the pirate captain was blasted off the ship and into the sea below.

Luffy retracted his fist and stood beside his brothers as all three glared at the cowering crew “Who’s the navigator?!”

“Hiii-!” A shaking man was pushed forward to the front and his legs shook as the three demons glared at him.

“Sabo?” Luffy turned to his brother and the blond boy walked forward and pulled out the map Luffy had given him.

“Take us here.” Sabo said as he pointed at the Conami Islands.

“That- that’s about a day and a half away but – but we’re out of supplies.” The navigator said with a stutter.

“Good then. Hurry up.” Sabo said heartlessly.

“But – but –“ The man tried to say.

“Do you want to be thrown overboard?” Luffy asked faux calmly as he stomped towards the man.

“No! I mean, no sir! Sirs!” The man saluted and turned to the rest of the crew “Men! Set bearing to west-northwest! We’re sailing for the Conami Islands!” He then turned back to the three brothers “Where in the Conami Islands exactly, sirs?”

“Cocoyashi Village.” Luffy replied as he turned and walked away.

“Right.” The navigator coughed and went back to directing the men.

“First a sea king and now these three demons. This world is full of monsters.” One of the pirates muttered as he pulled the rope holding the sails steady, ruminating on the events of the day.

“Ahn?” Ace turned to the pirate with a mean look, the blood on his pipe gleaming ominously.

“Nothing, sir!” The man exclaimed and went back to work.

* * *

The pirates and their new taskmasters travelled along the path to their destination. The storm soon ceased as they continued, the weather returning to the typical East Blue peacefulness.

Ace and Sabo drove the pirates hard, making them sail even through the night. As a result, the navigator’s predicted travel time of a day and a half became much shorter.

Luffy left the task of managing the crew to his brothers and sat silently at the front of the ship for most of the time. Because of the speed of the ship, they were unable to catch fish to eat and as stated by the navigator beforehand, the crew had already run out of supplies. And Luffy simply didn’t allow them to take a break to peacefully go fishing.

Having nothing to sate their hunger, the three brothers did the least amount of work possible, opting instead to conserve their energy for the upcoming fight. The rest of the crew however was made to work in rotations and left to suffer.

Although Luffy hadn’t said anything specific so far, Ace and Sabo had a good idea who they’d be fighting since Ace remembered the newspaper article Luffy had seen which started the entire fiasco.

Knowing that fishmen were much stronger than humans, both of them prepared themselves for possibly their toughest battle so far.

And after travelling for almost an entire day without stopping, their destination was finally in sight.

Luffy stood in the front, his hat swaying slightly and the shirt tied around his waist billowing in the wind.

“Land ahoy!” The pirate in the crow’s nest shouted at the top of his lungs.

“There it is, sirs. The Conami Islands! Home to uh...” The navigator stumbled in his speech for a moment “Home to Cocoyashi Village! The greatest village there is!”

Ace looked at him disdainfully for the shabby introduction.

“Wha-? That’s-!” The group heard the man in the crow’s nest exclaim “There’s a pirate ship there! The flag...” There was silence for a while as they got closer to the shore.

“The Arlong Pirates! That’s the flag of the Arlong Pirates! The fishmen pirates that came to East Blue about a week ago!” The barrelman screamed in fear.

Chaos broke out on the deck as various crew members started to shout and panic loudly. Swords were unsheathed and a fight was about to break out.

“SHUT UP!” A wave of force displaced the nearby wind and everyone stared as the loudest ones fell unconscious, their mouths foaming.

Luffy glared at them all “Get us there. You people can do whatever you want afterwards but get – us – there.”

The crew looked at each other and gulped, then went back to their stations. The navigator stood and fidgeted, now even more nervous than before.

The three brothers waited in trepidation as the ship got closer and closer to shore. Sabo started unconsciously tapping his foot out of nervousness while Ace held onto his pipe tightly.

The three were perhaps not well-fed but they were well-rested for the battle.

As they approached the docks of Cocoyashi Village, they saw that there were very few people around the settlement. Instead, they spotted a large group of people on the far outskirts of the village.

Luffy’s fists closed and opened. He licked his lips and took a deep breath and let it out.

They weren’t fast enough.

The moment they were close enough to shore, Luffy grabbed the railing and jumped back, his arms stretching.

“Grab onto him!” Sabo yelled at Ace as he held onto Luffy’s waist tightly with Ace a moment behind him in doing the same.

All three rocketed off the ship and flew through the air. It wasn’t very long at all before they landed with a crash on the grounds of Cocoyashi Village.

Ace and Sabo rolled as they landed but the momentum carried them forward and they tumbled in the dirt, unable to regain their balance quickly.

“Hah! Serves you right, dipshits! I hope the fishmen eat you, you damn midgets!” As the two got up rubbing their heads, the skittish navigator from before completely changed his demeanour and cursed at them loudly as the pirate ship started to move away from the island.

“That bastard...” Ace swore with a glare.

“Forget about him, Ace. We need to catch up with Luffy.” Sabo said urgently. Ace agreed with him and they started running in the direction they had seen their youngest brother go.

* * *

Luffy ran.

He ran faster than he’d ever ran before in this new life of his.

He was already too late to completely prevent whatever disaster Arlong had wrought when he first arrived. He knew this.

He knew he was late. But he still prayed. Prayed for Nami’s safety.

Because as much as Luffy cared about the lives of the people of Cocoyashi Village, Nami’s importance in his heart trumped theirs easily.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t care. He wanted to save as many lives as he could.

These people were, after all, Nami’s friends and family.

So Luffy ran like he’d never ran before.

* * *

Young Nami cried as she watched Bell-mère fall to the ground, a smile on the woman’s lips.

She was vaguely aware of Nojiko holding her but Nami’s eyes remained on the corpse of the woman she thought of as her very own mother.

For a long moment, she wondered why this happened. Why did this have to happen she wondered. Just because Nami wished that she’d been adopted by a richer person didn’t mean that she wanted to lose her current family.

Nami could do nothing but cry.

However, she froze when the killer picked up a paper from the ground and looked at it.

“No! Give that back –“ Nami’s cries were swiftly muffled by Nojiko but she wasn’t fast enough.

Saw-Tooth Arlong looked at the two and grinned. He held the drawn map up and asked with a grin “Which of you drew this map?”

Nami was pushed behind Nojiko as the older girl faced the fishman with a weak glare “It – It was me! I drew it! So what?!”

“Hmm...” Arlong’s grin widened as he stepped towards them. The two girls shook as the giant fishman stood in front of them.

“You said you drew this map?” The fishman asked, his voice sounding amused.

“Y-Yeah. What about it?!” Nojiko replied trying to back away but failing due to her sister behind her.

“Heh. Liar. Get lost.” The older girl was casually batted away and Nojiko hit the ground painfully, holding her cheek at the rapidly developing pain as she sniffled.

“Now you. You’re the one who drew this map, aren’t you?” Arlong asked.

Nami’s body shook wordlessly, unable to say anything for she was petrified in fear.

She caught sight of Genzo yelling something but being blocked by the other fishmen. She couldn’t even muster up the courage to yell for help.

“How about we go and have a chat?” Arlong stated and went to grab her.

Nami’s world slowed down as she stared at the giant hand coming towards her.

_Help me_

She could see the face of the fishman above her, his sharp teeth gleaming in the sunlight.

_Please help me_

She watched as the hand came close and overshadowed her entire world, cast her whole vision into darkness.

And Nami desperately made a wish in the darkness. To any hero that might be listening.

_Someone please save me!_

...

There was a fist in Arlong’s face.

It was a small fist, Nami noted. Like that of someone her age.

It looked rough, she noted. Like a boy’s fist.

It looked strong, she noted. Like someone who fought a thousand battles.

Nami watched as slowly, Arlong’s cheek caved in. His grin deforming, his eyes briefly losing focus, his head being pushed to the side.

_“Pistol!”_

Nami’s vision lit up as the world snapped back into motion with Arlong being blasted away from her.

Her hair ruffled from the shockwave of the punch. She heard a loud crash somewhere to her side where Arlong landed but her eyes stayed on the fist in front of her.

It was only now she noticed the abnormally long arm the fist was connected to and as Nami watched, the arm shortened as the fist was retracted.

The fist snapped into its rightful place just as its owner landed in front of her.

A straw hat on his head, a shirt tied around his waist, shorts on his legs and sandals on his feet. He seemed very ordinary and just slightly taller than her.

But he was young, Nami noted. Like someone her age.

He looked rough, she noted. Definitely a boy.

He looked strong, she noted. Like someone who fought a thousand battles.

And as he stood in front of her protectively, his small back hiding her away from the fishman in front of him...

He looked like a hero.

Tears fell from Nami’s eyes.

“Your opponent -” Luffy glared as he raised a fist in challenge “- is me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED


	6. The Heat of Battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just like last time:  
>  _Yari = Spear_

There was a momentary silence where the sound of wind was the only thing audible.

That silence was broken as Arlong pushed away the tree that had fallen on him and slowly stood up, his face not visible.

The crowd of people that had previously gathered began to back off, the ones at the back choosing to run away entirely.

The fishmen collectively stared in shock.

"You..." A savage growl cut through the air as Arlong walked forward, his steps sounding more like stomps despite looking no different than before.

A prominent vein pulsed on the side of his neck as his eyes focused on the new human in front of him, his visage seeming more and more like that of a predatory animal.

A casual observer would laugh if he saw the current scene. A four foot tall child standing off against an eight foot tall behemoth of a fishman. He would think that the child was being silly as all children usually tend to be but the atmosphere around the two was anything but silly.

Arlong turned and spat on the ground. He looked at the red-tinted spit for a moment then glowered at the boy "You made me _bleed_." He bit out, his large hands itching to tear into the offender "Who are you, boy?"

Luffy cracked his knuckles "Monkey D. Luffy. Here to kick your ass."

The fishman suddenly relaxed as he stopped walking. He threw aside the coat he was wearing and cracked his neck. "Brothers." He said to his waiting crew as he once more stalked forward "I changed my mind. Destroy this village. It's an eyesore."

Smirks appeared among the crowd of fishmen as they advanced towards the crowd of onlookers. The villagers quickly realized the situation and panicked as they started running towards their homes. Genzo gritted his teeth as he gave one last glance at Nami before joining the running crowd.

Luffy glared at the fishmen and prepared to knock them out but his senses suddenly blared in alarm.

His plain haki-covered fist met Arlong's gigantic fist head on and a boom sounded as Luffy slid back on the ground, his feet leaving trails in the dirt below. His arm shook slightly as he held back the fishman's fist.

"And you" Arlong growled as his already sharp teeth grew sharper, his eyes looking animalistic in his fury.

"can die."

* * *

"Hehe. I was surprised for a moment when that kid pushed Arlong-san back but he's dead now. Arlong-san is angry! Hahaha!" A fishman said as he leisurely walked on the path leading to the rest of the village, his brethren following behind him.

"Heh. You said it. It's never a pretty sight when Arlong-san is angry. Probably good that we got out of there." Another one said in reply.

They all watched the humans run towards their village, following their first instinct of getting to a safe place, their homes being the ingrained first option.

"Eh, this is boring! I'm going ahead!" One of the fishmen said as he charged towards the fleeing crowd.

A middle aged woman at the back of the crowd screamed as the fishman came towards her, a hand extending out to grab her neck.

Two pipes crashed into the charging fishman's face and stopped him in his tracks.

The fishman held his nose with both hands as he stumbled then fell on his back, groaning in pain. The fleeing woman gave a grateful look to her rescuers and continued to run.

Ace and Sabo stood in front of the group of fishmen, their pipes in their hands, ready to fight.

"More kids? What is with this village and kids?" The leading fishman from earlier asked no one in particular as he and his brethren stopped in front of the two brothers.

"Where's Luffy, you fish bastards?!" Ace shouted at them.

The leading fishman's face twitched and he scowled. He smirked as the question registered in his head "Ah, the other brat? He's about to be killed by the captain any moment now. Why? You wanna join him in the afterlife?" His companions snickered.

Ace gritted his teeth as he glared at them before attempting bypass them to get to Luffy.

A bluish leg swept into his middle out of nowhere. The sudden force lifted him off the ground and Ace's mouth opened with a harsh gasp.

He was abruptly thrown into Sabo who caught him with a surprised stumble. Ace coughed repeatedly as he stood up shakily, holding onto his brother's shoulder. He looked at the culprit warily.

"Now now. What's the hurry? You can go join him later. How about we get along and play for a while instead?" The bluish leading fishman said bringing his leg back down, his smirk looking more menacing than before.

Multiple fishmen cracked their knuckles and necks, the harsh sounds resounding ominously.

Sabo frowned in worry as he looked at Ace rubbing his chest and the enemies in front of them.

_A fishman, multiple times stronger than regular humans..._

His eyes took in the couple dozen fishmen facing them.

_This is gonna be our toughest battle yet._

His gaze then shifted towards the only house he could see on top of the hill. His frown tightened.

_And Luffy's fighting the strongest of them all._

He noticed Ace standing on his own now and gripped his pipe tighter. Sabo briefly looked behind him and saw the village nearby, people scrambling between the buildings.

Ace gave voice to his thoughts "Luffy's fighting the boss and too busy keep the village safe." He crouched slightly and looked ahead, his face filled with determination "It's up to the two of us to do it instead."

Sabo ducked his head slightly in agreement "We can't always be the ones being protected." He murmured under his breath.

Ace said nothing. He sprang off the ground in a dash towards the one who hit him earlier.

The bluish fishman scoffed as he swept a leg out once more, the size of his enemies forcing him to use his legs insead of his arms.

Ace however ducked under the sweeping leg then swept his pipe upwards, hitting the back of the knee.

The fishman lost his balance as his leg was abruptly raised higher and flailed his arms. Ace took a step to the side and raised his hands high, his pipe almost reaching behind him.

The pipe smashed into the fishman's knee as Ace put his entire body into the blow.

He was rewarded with a pained scream. As the fishman crouched down and held his broken kneecap, Ace reared up and smashed his pipe into the enemy's face. A satisfying crunch sounded out as blood erupted from the fishman's nose and he fell over backwards, unconscious.

Ace stepped back in satisfaction. He looked at Sabo who was blinking in shock at the fallen fishman "These guys are stronger but that doesn't mean they're better fighters."

He faced the glares directed at him and grinned eagerly, the freckles on his face stretching, his black eyes glinting in anticipation.

"It just means we have to hit harder."

* * *

Two fists collided in a boom.

One big, one small.

Unequally matched.

Arlong sent fist after fist, punch after punch, at the child that dared to fight him head on.

Luffy met each fist with his own, each punch with his own.

And each collision pushed him back little by little.

Nami pulled an unconscious Nojiko towards their house and leaned the blue haired girl on the wall. Nami stood in front of her and gulped as she felt the aftershocks of the collisions.

Truthfully, she wanted to run. She wanted to just run away from the place. But she couldn't. For many reasons.

One of the reasons was right behind her. Nojiko, her sister. Nami couldn't just leave her here unconscious and vulnerable.

Another reason was lying on the ground a bit away from her. Bell-mère, her mother. Her body lay untouched on the dirt and Nami couldn't bear to just leave her there and flee.

Nami wanted to drag her nearer but she was too scared to do so because that would mean getting nearer to the fight between the horrible fishman and her rescuer.

Finally and more practically, the path away from the house was blocked by the two's fight and Nami wasn't physically strong enough to carry Nojiko all the way.

So Nami opted to just stay still and be as less of a distraction to the fighters as possible.

It was all she could do at the moment, her fear-ridden mind giving her no other way to safety.

* * *

In a straighforward contest of strength between Luffy and Arlong, the rubber boy reluctantly admitted that unlike the last time they'd fought, he was not the fishman's match.

Arlong was older and better built. He was also a fishman, the heritage alone making him stronger than the average fighter.

Luffy was not his match.

In a contest of strength, at least.

But as a fighter, Luffy met him head on.

Haki compensated his weakness significantly. Armament Haki, despite not using Hardening, enhanced his strength enough to at least not lose miserably. Observation Haki enhanced his reflexes enough to dodge the devastating blows, even if it was by the skin of his teeth. And finally, his own bodily flexibility enhanced both aspects.

Luffy was not winning the fight. But he was not quite losing either.

He increased the pace instead.

For the first time in the fight, Luffy took a full step back after the last collision and threw his hand back, the arm stretching beyond normal limits. A moment later, he met Arlong's advancing fist with his returning one.

The subsequent collision made the fishman take a step back.

Arlong narrowed his eyes as he scrutinized the boy "A devil fruit." He stated matter-of-factly. "And a paramecia by the looks of it."

He then dashed forward and stomped towards Luffy. The rubber boy jumped to avoid it but had to immediately put up his guard as Arlong's fist slammed into his crossed arms.

Luffy bounced off the ground and with a backflip, landed on his feet. He rubbed his forearms cautiously, the hit having caused some minor pain despite the haki coating and his rubber powers.

"No wonder you're so cocky, brat. A devil fruit would put you above most humans in this backwater sea." Arlong said casually as he dashed forward once more.

"Sadly for you, I am not most humans." He raised his hands high "I am a fishman! I am above you humans!" A double-handed hammer strike surged downwards at the rubber boy.

Luffy's eyes almost glowed with Observation Haki as he stepped forward into Arlong's space, his arms stretched far behind him. _"Gomu Gomu no…"_ The incoming hammer strike passed harmlessly between his arms behind him and Luffy happily took the opening.

" _Bazooka!"_

Aimed slightly upwards, his open hands slammed into Arlong's abdomen.

The fishman spat blood as he flew back, his body rolling on the ground for a second before he jumped onto his feet and slid back.

He stood straight as he rubbed away the blood stain near his mouth, his posture looking menacing despite the moment of weakness.

Luffy glared at him, his hat hanging from his neck behind him "Do I look like I care if you're a fishman? I'm gonna beat you down no matter who you are!"

A growl was his immediate reply before he had to jump out of the way. A loud snap sounded next to him as Arlong's jaws closed where he was standing just a moment ago.

Arlong's hand slashed out towards the rubber boy but Luffy ducked under it and rushed forward. _"Bullet!"_ His stretched hand aimed at Arlong's chest but was blocked by the fishman's other arm.

Luffy was suddenly and violently kicked into the air. He let out a cough but had to quickly focus when his Haki warned him of an incoming bite.

Luffy abruptly sucked in a large amount of air and inflated. Arlong couldn't get his jaws around the bloated boy and ended up using his sharp nose to stab him at an awkward angle.

A small gash appeared on Luffy's stomach before he let out a large steam breath right into Arlong's face, simultaneously propelling him away from the fishman and rendering Arlong unable to see.

But Luffy held onto Arlong's nose with both hands as his feet stretched behind him in the air.

" _Double Stamp!"_

Arlong's head snapped backwards as two sandaled feet slammed into his face and Luffy let go of his nose, both of them flying in opposite directions.

Both of them landed on their feet. Luffy fingered the small wound on his abdomen while Arlong grabbed his jaw and twisted his head left and right, small cracking sounds being issued forth.

"Perhaps you have a right to be as cocky as you are." Arlong said casually before he put a hand in his open mouth. A set of teeth disconnected from his mouth into his hand before a new set quickly grew, picked again by his other hand before another set of teeth grew once more.

Arlong snapped the razor sharp sets of fangs in his hands as he smirked at his opponent "But not against me."

Luffy clenched his jaw stubbornly and readied himself once more.

* * *

Despite Ace's earlier words, it was not as simple as just hitting harder.

While part of it was accurate since the fishmen truly were not especially better fighters than most other pirates, at least on land, what they did have was a familiarity with each other that Ace and Sabo had not seen before in other crews such as Bluejam's or Cutlass'.

Ace sidestepped an uppercut and smacked his pipe into the opposing fishman's jaw. The blow disoriented the fishman but before Ace could capitalize on it, a fist smashed into his cheek from the side and he was sent flying.

Yet another fishman attempted to headbutt the flying boy but Ace landed on his face feet first and smacked his pipe into the fishman's ear. He sprang off the stunned fishman's face upwards and smashed his pipe with full force into the opponent's face.

He landed on his feet and seeing his opponent still not down, he hit the fishman's groin. The pale red fishman moaned in pain and fell down.

Ace couldn't even be satisfied with his work before Sabo crashed into his back and sent both of them tumbling down the trail towards the village.

The two stood up carefully with equally pained groans. Ace looked at the village and saw people hurriedly boarding multiple large sailboats. He groaned "Are these people stupid? The enemies are _fish_ men. Obviously, they're better in water than land."

Sabo shook his head to ward off the dizziness "Maybe they don't know? Did the newspaper say anothing about that?"

"Well no but… come on. It's obvious!"

"Not everyone is a fighter, Ace. They don't think like us. As far as they care, fishmen are bad news whether it's land or sea. They just want to run." Sabo said sadly.

The two watched the fishmen advance down the hill. Their numbers had decreased to a little more than half the original but the remaining ones just looked angrier.

Meanwhile, Ace and Sabo looked like they'd fought an army.

Sabo's cheek was starting to swell and he was slightly limping, a few scratches on his arm slowly bleeding. His top hat was lost at sea long ago and his shirt and sleeves were starting to look like rags.

On Ace's side, blood was slowly running down his face because of an earlier blow to his head and from the side of his mouth. His arms and legs were heavily bruised, looking almost purple entirely.

And yet they both stood tall, ready to duke it out with the fishmen once more.

A crash echoed from far away and Ace and Sabo watched in worry as they saw Luffy being blown away between two trees. However he quickly latched his hands on the trees and rocketed back into the action out of sight, another crash echoing.

Ace gritted his teeth in frustration as he turned back to the group of fishmen. "We're not strong enough. Damn it, why aren't we strong enough?!"

Sabo didn't have an answer for him. Despite all the training that they had put themselves through, despite all the things they'd been through…

_We aren't ready for this level yet._

Both of them knew it. At ten years old, neither of them were ready for this level of fights yet. It was even more crushing when they realized that this was still just the East Blue.

Not the Grand Line.

Not the greatest sea in the world.

This was still just the backwater East Blue.

Their frustration grew at the realization. But neither said a word.

Standing defiant in front of the fishmen, they had no choice but to get through this obstacle. They couldn't let their youngest brother fight all their battles. They had to improve.

And facing nearly insurmountable odds was perhaps the best way to do so.

So they stood. And they fought.

* * *

"Hurry! Hurry! Board quickly! We don't have time!" A man yelled as he guided his fellow villagers into the boat.

As multiple people guided the others into the boats, a crash sounded out from afar. The villagers looked back and saw one of the children that was fighting the fishmen – the blond one - groggily stumble out of a broken wooden wall and run back towards the fight.

"Hurry!" One of the men yelled urgently once more.

Among the panicked crowd however, one man stood silently. His eyes shadowed, the pinwheel on his hat not spinning for once.

"Genzo-san! We need to hurry up and leave! The fishmen could arrive any moment!" A middle-aged man next to him urged him.

Genzo however had other plans "No."

His companion looked flabbergasted at the response. "Wha – What do you mean no? They _will_ come! Those kids can't hold them back for long!"

Genzo's hands tightened as he glared at the man. "And you want me to be thankful?!" He yelled.

The people around him stopped for a moment and looked at him. Genzo glared at them all. "We are letting _children_ fight our battles! Aren't you all ashamed of yourselves?!"

No one replied. Many of them lowered their heads.

But Genzo continued "I am not grateful. I am ASHAMED! I am angry at myself!" He shouted. "They are children! And they are fighting foes that even us adults fear! And they're not even from here! They are putting their lives on the line for strangers!"

A woman cautiously raised her voice "But Genzo-san, what can we do? We're just villagers. We can't fight –"

"SO CHILDREN ARE MORE QUALIFIED THEN?!"

The woman quietened. She had nothing to say.

Genzo angrily pointed at the commotion, his point emphasized as one of the children - the black-haired one - went flying and smacked into the edge of a fence. The people heard his pained moan but watched silently as he shakily stood up and walked forward using his pipe as a cane, heedless of his injuries.

"That could be your child! That could be _my_ child!" Genzo shouted, his voice slightly wobbling. "That could be Nami or Nojiko! AND WE'RE LEAVING THEM AND RUNNING?!"

Genzo panted. He put his hands behind him and removed the two guns he kept holstered. He turned away from the boats and began to walk. "No more."

"I'd rather die with them than let them die alone."

* * *

Sabo panted, his breath coming out in harsh gasps as he watched Ace poke a fishman's eye with his fingers. The black-haired boy then stood on his blinded opponent's shoulders and repeatedly smashed his elbow on the fishman's head, the large being falling over after a few hits.

Ace smacked into the dirt face first. He laid there for a moment, just silently breathing before he put his hands on the ground and pushed himself up, his pipe lost in the chaos of the battle.

They were barely a dozen fishmen left standing. Not many of them left. The battle was slowly coming to an end.

Sabo dashed forward, grimacing at the pain that shot through his leg. He threw the only wood bomb he'd saved up until now at the green fishman's face as he swiftly slid between the fishman's legs. He didn't even bother getting up nor seeing the results of his bomb and swung his pipe upwards between his opponent's legs.

As the fishman fell to his knees, Sabo heaved himself up and stepped to his side before breaking the fishman's nose with a full-powered swing of his pipe.

Before he could do anything else though, a hand roughly grabbed Sabo by the neck and lifted him up. The blond boy coughed out blood and struggled.

"Let him go!" Ace shouted as he limped forward but several water bullets suddenly hit his legs and he fell to the ground with a yelp.

Kuroobi held Sabo by the neck and looked at Ace unimpressed, a young Chew smirking at the boy from afar. "What damage you two children have caused to our crew… This cannot be forgiven." He grabbed Sabo's arm, the one still clutching his pipe tightly.

"No! Stop! Don't you –"

A scream cut through the air as Kuroobi forcefully pulled Sabo's arm out of its shoulder socket, dislocating it entirely.

Kuroobi casually caught the pipe that fell from the boy's hands. He looked at it carefully, ignoring the blood and scratches on the construct. He shook his head dismissively "A child's toy" He turned to his brethren, only a small portion of whom were still standing. He turned back to the pipe in his hands with narrow eyes "Yet quite effective."

He clenched his fist and snapped the pipe in two, the pieces falling to the ground.

"Perhaps I overestimated my brothers. Perhaps I should have stepped in and taken care of you two earlier, regardless of my brothers' desires to fight on their own." The ray fishman said, his voice sounding calm despite the whimpers from the child in his hands.

"You…" Ace started angrily before he was kicked into the ground by one of the few remaining fishmen.

The gray-skinned fishman above him raised his foot to smash it into Ace's head but before he could…

Two loud bangs sounded out as everyone turned to see a man wearing a hat with a pinwheel on it holding two smoking guns.

The fishman above Ace tilted back and fell to the ground, the two new holes on his chest bleeding profusely.

Ace slowly got up, holding his aching chest with one hand, his red tank top torn to shreds long ago. He looked at the new entry incredulously "You… Why did you come back?" He asked in between panting breaths.

Genzo reloaded his flintlock pistols as he glared at the fishman holding Sabo. "I refuse to flee like a rat when children are fighting battles adults should be fighting instead."

He pointed his guns at Kuroobi and roared "And as the sheriff of this village, it's my duty to fight for this village!"

"Hmph." Kuroobi snorted disdainfully at him.

Before Genzo could pull the trigger, water bullets slammed into his midriff and he bent forward in pain. A purple fishman suddenly appeared in front of him and slapped him aside.

Ace sprang forward and swept the fishman's legs out from under him. Once the fishman was on the ground, Ace stomped on the fishman's face as hard as he could again and again.

A water bullet slammed into his back and Ace tumbled forward into the ground. Genzo used the opportunity to put a bullet in the fallen but not yet down fishman's head.

As the two humans, one child and one adult stood up shakily, Kuroobi shook his head disappointed. "Humans. Always struggling until the end."

However, he was interrupted by a yelp from one of the other fishmen. He turned and stared as a yellow-skinned fishman covered one of his eyes, blood slowly flowing from it.

Below him was a small bloody stone.

As he turned towards the village once more, he saw the villagers who had previously run away standing on the rooftops with stones in their hands and in heaps beside them.

"You all…" Ace looked at them all in wonder. Even Genzo was looking at them as if he was seeing them for the first time.

The villagers were still too scared to get nearer to the fishmen.

But that still left them the option of using ranged weapons.

And so stones rained down on the few standing fishmen, a few people throwing whatever sharp object they had – such as knives or daggers – and one illustrious fellow even using a bow and arrow.

The fishmen tried to find cover but they were standing in the open street and couldn't find any.

"How annoying. Did you forget that I have a hostage?" Kuroobi lifted Sabo higher and squeezed his neck. The blond boy gasped, using his still functioning left hand to try to reduce the pressure.

The bombardment stopped as everyone collectively hesitated.

Most of the fishmen were lying on the ground, having sustained quite a bit of damage from the attacks, only a few even standing straight.

Ace angrily rushed toward Kuroobi but the pale blue water-spitting fishman from earlier suddenly appeared and kicked his head to the side. The boy fell down face first and grunted as a foot pressed down on his head.

He twisted his head up and saw the ray fishman still squeezing Sabo's throat, slowly increasing the pressure. Ace's brother struggled ineffectively with one hand, his other hanging uselessly on his right.

"How predictable." Kuroobi said carelessly.

Genzo kept his guns pointed at Kuroobi, despite not finding the opening to shoot. "You don't think you can get away with this, do you? The Marines will get you and you'll regret everything then." He shouted, more to buy time than anything.

Kuroobi smirked, his eyes glinting ominously "You would think so, wouldn't you? Unfortunately for you, that's not how the world works. In this sea, we can easily pay them off and they'll happily look the other direction."

Sabo's face twitched.

Genzo's hands trembled, his face a mask of rage "You –" He pulled the trigger on the gun on his right hand, the bullet hitting Kuroobi's chest and not even properly drawing blood. The ray fishman scoffed disdainfully.

A water bullet hit his left wrist and Genzo shouted in pain, the loaded gun in his hand falling to the ground next to the trapped Ace.

Chew sneered as he smacked his lips. "How stupid. Trying to buy time?"

"Stop it!" Ace yelled with a hoarse throat as he saw Kuroobi lift Sabo higher.

"Hmph." Kuroobi snorted once more and tightened his grip on the blond boy's throat.

Sabo's pained face reflected in Ace's eyes.

"I said…"

Red sparks shined in his pupils.

" _STOP!"_

A wave of willpower surged out, the force passing through everyone there.

The few remaining non-officer fishmen swayed for a moment and fell to the ground, their eyes rolled up into their heads.

Genzo slowly stepped back, holding his head and rubbing his temples.

Chew stumbled back, feeling heavily dizzy all of a sudden.

Kuroobi squinted and put a hand to his head, a painful headache having formed out of nowhere, the hand holding Sabo being lowered to his side, his grip loosening.

Twin shots of adrenaline surged through both children.

Sabo hooked a foot under the broken pipe on the ground and threw it upwards. He caught it with his left hand and unconsciously coated it with tiny bits of Armament Haki as he stabbed the sharp broken end into the fishman's knee.

Kuroobi shouted in pain as he fell to a knee, releasing his hold on Sabo in the process.

He looked at the pipe sticking out of his knee and threw an angry look at the boy responsible.

Sabo spat blood into his eyes.

The ray fishman's head snapped back, temporarily blinded.

Sabo bent down and picked up the other half of the pipe.

Meanwhile, Ace grabbed a stone someone had thrown earlier and jumped to his feet. He turned and slammed the stone into the smelt-whiting fishman's groin.

Chew groaned amidst his dizzines and fell on his back, his legs pulled up and his hands holding the aching part gingerly.

Ace bent down and picked up the gun next to his feet.

Sabo stood in front of the blinded and flailing fishman and lifted the broken pipe with his left hand, his eyes glaring at the large fishman.

Ace shoved the pistol into Chew's prominent mouth, his eyes burning with fury.

A bang and a squelch echoed across the street.

When Genzo opened his eyes again, he saw a pipe sticking out of one of the ray fishman's eyes. He watched in horrified fascination as the fishman slowly fell backwards and onto his back. Dead without a doubt.

On his side, he saw the water-spitting fishman from earlier laying flat on the ground, his eyes unseeing and copious amounts of blood pooling behind his head. A gun laid silently on the ground next to the body.

Ace and Sabo looked around themselves.

No fishman was still standing.

They locked eyes with each other.

Ace slowly shuffled toward him.

Sabo slowly limped toward Ace.

As they closed the small distance between them, tears welled up in their eyes.

Ace rushed forward just as Sabo lost his balance, catching him in a hug.

"Sabo!"

"Ace!"

Their voices, both hoarse, both tired, wobbled as they held onto each other and cried.

All the emotions, all the frustration, all the exhaustion, everything came pouring out of them as they cried in each other's embrace.

And as tears fell down their faces, they savoured their well-earned victory after the hardest battle they'd ever fought.

And won.

Genzo fell on his butt, his eyes not leaving the crying children even as cheers erupted around him.

_They did it._

The man had no illusions that he or his fellow villagers actually contributed anything noteworthy to the battle. Almost the entire battle was fought and won by the two children in front of him.

_They actually did it._

Tears came to his own eyes as well but he stubbornly refused to let them fall.

_They saved us._

* * *

Hatchan hid behind a building as he looked at the people cheering.

He knew that technically, he should be angry. He should be boiling with rage at the death of his brothers and he should be there, killing off every last one of the humans.

_Arlong pulled the trigger and Hatchan watched silently as the brave woman died in her daughters' place._

But as the scenes of recent events ran through his head…

" _Destroy this village. It's an eyesore."_

He hesitated.

_Kuroobi squeezed the boy's throat and Hatchan watched the boy scream._

Hatchan watched silently as the villagers all celebrated, tears falling everywhere. He watched as the two children who were responsible for it all held onto each other and sobbed their hearts out.

He looked at the top of the hill where another child fought his captain to protect a young girl from being exploited.

"Nyuu…" Hatchan looked down.

This wasn't what he wanted. He didn't follow Arlong just to torture humans for his brethren's pleasure. He didn't want to avenge his brethren just for the reason that their victims fought back to protect themselves.

He didn't want any of this.

Hatchan ran.

He jumped into the sea next to the village and swam away.

He fled.

And as he fled, tears fell from his eyes, even Hatchan himself not knowing the reason why they fell.

* * *

Luffy leaned back and avoided the snap of the detached fangs.

He jumped back to avoid the snap of the other set and as he flew back, he threw his leg out and issued forth a _Stamp_ on his adversary's face.

Arlong growled and tried to bite the foot on his face but Luffy retracted his leg quickly.

Not quick enough however as one of the fishman's hand fangs brushed against his leg before it fully retracted.

Luffy winced as another wound was added to his already wound-ridden limbs. Long wounds criss-crossed his arms and legs. None of them too serious but all of them hindering his combat capabilities.

Despite Luffy's fighting prowess, his Observation Haki was not good enough to detect far enough in advance to avoid all attacks. And his young body was not fast enough to avoid each and every attack that he did detect.

And once Arlong figured out that sharp attacks worked better than blunt attacks, the situation only worsened.

Luffy jumped into the air and twisted one of his arms behind him. Arlong took the opportunity and advanced, his hand fangs surging forward to take a bite of the boy.

The rubber boy however stretched a hand forward and grabbed Arlong's foot and pulled himself forward. Deftly avoiding the fangs with a twist of his body, Luffy landed heavily on his feet and aimed upwards.

" _Rifle!"_

A rapidly spinning hand slammed into Arlong's jaw and blasted him up into the air.

Luffy moved forward and turned, aiming at Arlong's unprotected back.

" _Twin Pistol!"_

Two fists dug into the flying fishman's back and he let out a gasp of pain.

But Luffy was still not done.

He jumped up and aimed his joined feet horizontally at the fishman's head.

" _Yari!"_

Luffy's feet stabbed like a spear into Arlong's head and the sawshark fishman's body spun forward in a front flip.

Arlong crashed into the ground headfirst. Luffy landed on his hands and backflipped onto his feet. Immediately, he pushed off the ground and dashed forward, his hands extended for a Bazooka.

However, Arlong suddenly pushed himself off the ground from a lying position straight into the air, his limbs spread-eagle, Luffy's attack passing harmlessly below him as he landed behind the boy.

" _Shark on Darts!"_ Arlong aimed his sharp nose at Luffy's back and launched himself at high speed towards the boy.

Luffy bent forward and fell flat on the ground, the shark dart passing above him. Arlong didn't let up.

" _Shark Teeth!"_ The fishman stopped his forward momentum and turned on the spot to bite down on the boy's head.

Luffy hurriedly pushed the ground with his feet, sliding right between Arlong's legs and avoiding the bite.

Arlong growled and sent his hand fangs under him. _"Tooth Gum!"_

Luffy twisted to avoid the two sets of teeth but one of them caught on the shirt tied to his waist.

He yelped as he was suddenly thrown up into the air and he spun around and twisted to regain his balance. When he did, he saw Arlong crouching on the ground.

" _Shark on Tooth!"_

The fishman launched himself into the air, spinning at high speeds, his jaws aimed straight at the rubber boy in the air.

Luffy thought quickly and inflated himself then quickly blew out the breath below him. The reactionary force pushed him just high enough that Arlong's spinning form passed inches below him.

He landed on the ground safely as Arlong did the same a distance away from him.

Luffy panted. His stomach growled and he grimaced as he held it. Although Luffy didn't expect this fight to be easy, he was having quite a hard time landing hits on Arlong and the battle wasn't looking to be ending anytime soon.

Add to that his hunger and the various wounds adorning his body and slowly leaking blood, he was becoming weaker the longer the fight dragged on.

But that didn't mean Arlong was faring any better either.

Several bruises adorned the sawshark fishman's body, Luffy's haki coated attacks dealing more damage than they usually would. Blood stains dotted Arlong's body, his own bloody coughs coating him in the life fluid. His face was slightly swollen because of Luffy's targeted attacks at his face.

But despite all the injuries, both of them glared at each other.

Neither of them said a word as they rushed towards each other once more.

" _Haki improves in the heat of battle."_

Luffy remembered Rayleigh's words as he ducked under one of the hand fangs and spontaneously decided to get rid of them first.

He wound his right arm around Arlong's left forearm holding it in place and abruptly pushed himself off the ground and stomped the fishman's face. He carefully avoided the sharp nose as he stood on his opponent's face then reared his left fist back.

It flickered black.

He slammed the sadly normal looking fist into the fishman's immobilized wrist. Arlong grunted as he lost his grip on the set of teeth.

Luffy didn't let the failure bother him as he jumped to avoid the other set of hand fangs, bringing his hands up into the air above him. They flickered black once more.

_Bazooka!_

His hands slammed into the guarding forearm, pushing it into the fishman's face and his entire body into the ground.

Luffy landed in front of the fishman and took a deep breath as he threw his fists forward once more.

Arlong who had lost both of his hands fangs quickly rose and countered both fists with his own.

But Luffy wasn't doing a test of strength this time.

Both of his fists slammed forward again. Arlong countered them again.

They slammed forward once more. This time, the fishman countered only one, the other hit him in the chest.

_Faster._

Luffy threw his fists forward again and again.

_Stronger._

The fists came at Arlong faster and faster and he was able to counter less and less of them.

_Faster!_

More and more fists hit the fishman's face, chest and limbs.

_Stronger!_

Luffy's arms started to blink black. One among every few fists hitting harder than usual.

" _Gomu Gomu no…"_

His fists hit faster. His punches hit stronger. And Luffy's heart beat faster.

" _Gatling!"_

Arlong could do nothing under the storm of fists assaulting every inch of his body, his sense of pain and touch not fast enough to detect where every punch was hitting.

Luffy ended the rain of fists and blitzed forward into the fishman's guard.

" _Bazooka!"_

His strongest bazooka yet slammed into the fishman's abdomen and despite not enhanced by Hardening, it still sent Arlong flying away from him.

Luffy panted as his stomach growled once more. He looked warily at Arlong as he fell to the ground some distance away from him.

Nami wanted to run up to the boy and cheer because the fishman didn't seem to be getting up. But she stayed where she was because her hero didn't look like he had won the battle yet.

And he was right.

Arlong slowly got up once more. Blood dripped down from his head as he stood, his breathing heavy and his body visibly tired. Just like Luffy's.

They had been fighting for a long time now. The area around them was riddled with craters and tracks. Trees were toppled, fences broken and a once well-maintained garden now looked desolate.

Arlong and his crew had arrived at the village sometime in the late afternoon but by now, the sun was slowly beginning to set, the sky slowly turning orange.

The fishman spat some blood to the side as he stood straight once more, his bare chest showing off the mark of his former crew, the Sun Pirates

"You know the thing with you protector type of bastards?" Arlong said slowly as he pulled out another set of teeth, a new set taking its place but growing much more slowly compared to earlier and he didn't bother with his free left hand. He cracked his neck.

"You all have the same weakness." He said and smirked.

Luffy had just enough time to blink in confusion before Arlong shot off the ground sideways.

At Nami.

"No!" Luffy launched after him urgently. He was a step behind Arlong but catching up fast.

Nami could see death coming towards her. A sharp dart-like nose piercing toward her from afar reflected in her eyes. She was going to die.

But Luffy wouldn't let that happen.

Luffy appeared from Arlong's right and slammed his right foot sideways into Arlong's nose, just a few feet away from Nami. The force pushed the fishman's momentum sideways, away from Nami.

However…

The smirk on Arlong's face was his first warning.

Observation Haki blaring in alarm was his second warning.

The shine on the detached teeth was his third warning.

Luffy abruptly put more force into his foot, willing it to Harden but failing and trying to push himself away quicker.

He was not wholly successful.

Three fangs slashed deep into Luffy's chest as Arlong flew sideways and crashed into a tree, his hand losing its grip on the set of teeth once more.

Luffy stumbled back as he looked down at his chest.

Three very large gashes went from his left shoulder to right hip and Luffy thought he could almost see bone in one of them. However, they quickly welled up with blood and started to pour out.

"Shahaha! Didn't I tell you? You all have the same weakness! The very person you're protecting!" Arlong shouted gleefully as he got up again, ignoring the pain in his nose.

Luffy touched his chest and observed the blood on his hands silently. He turned back and saw Nami staring at him in horror, her hands covering her mouth. But Luffy ignored that and checked her for injuries.

Finding none, he sighed in relief and turned ahead once more.

" _There is no such thing as fairness in a pirate's fight!"_

He remembered his own words to Katakuri so many years ago. Indeed, there were no rules in a pirate's fight and anything was acceptable.

Nevertheless…

Luffy looked at Arlong with a calm fury.

"How about we try that again?" The fishman asked with a smug smirk and shot forward once more.

Nami panicked and whimpered "No… Run! You can't – You can't – again –"

Luffy stood silent as Arlong came straight.

" _Haki improves in the heat of battle."_

Observation Haki shined in his eyes as Armament Haki flowed fluidly.

Nami's fear increased the closer Arlong came. She could see the fishman's fangs shining, his nose ready to pierce her saviour's heart.

"Run! You can't beat him!"

She was wrong.

Arlong abruptly stopped in his tracks, his feet being thrown up into the air by the sudden stopping force.

Luffy slid back on the ground and stopped just inches in front of Nami, his back almost touching her. Nami couldn't move, frozen as she was by what she was seeing.

Two black hands steadily held onto Arlong's sharp nose in front of Luffy's face and stopped him from advancing or retreating.

"It doesn't matter if I can't beat you…" Luffy said slowly, his eyes glaring into Arlong's. He held the nose with one hand as he raised a fist behind him.

"I'll beat you down anyway!" A black fist crashed into Arlong's face.

And with a guttural roar, Luffy punched Arlong away from him.

The nose remained in his hand.

Nami winced as a harsh scream rang through the air. She glanced at the fishman rolling on the ground screaming but stared worriedly at the blood falling on the ground at the boy's feet.

Arlong pushed himself to his feet, one hand holding his bleeding nose as he glowered at the boy responsible "Why are you even doing this? Why are you fighting me? For _her_?" He pointed at Nami who cowered behind Luffy's back.

Luffy let out a bloody cough as he panted "I made a promise to keep my friends safe. No matter what. That's all."

Arlong snarled in rage " _Friends_?! Do you even live here?! The girl looks like she doesn't even know you!"

And indeed, Nami didn't know the boy protecting her. She hadn't ever seen him before.

"See?! She doesn't know you! For that matter, do _you_ even know _her_?!"

"NO, I _DON'T_ KNOW HER!" Luffy yelled, his chest aching with a pain that had nothing to do with the rapidly worsening wounds present there.

"Then WHY?!" Arlong shouted in frustration, feeling like he'd incurred so much damage for nothing.

"BECAUSE SHE'S MY FRIEND!" Luffy screamed as he panted. His voice then softened "And I'd rather die than let my friends die."

His words made no sense, Nami thought distantly. She didn't know him and he didn't know her. And yet, he considered her a friend. Just like that.

And he would die for her if he had to.

Nami didn't know what to say to that kind of resolve. Standing next to these two entities, their wills dwarfing hers by an unimaginable margin…

She felt small.

"So if I have to beat you down to save her…" Luffy started, taking a deep breath.

He lowered his center of gravity and stomped a foot forward, a sudden bulge running up his legs.

Steam started to rise off his body as his heart beat faster, the wounds on his chest spilling out more blood than before.

His skin took on a reddish hue as blood circulated faster than before.

Gear Second roared to life as steam circled his body.

"Then that's what I'll do." Luffy finished as he raised an open palm towards Arlong, his other hand cocked back.

Luffy knew he couldn't extend this fight any longer. He was losing strength too fast and he had no more time. He had to end it _now_.

Arlong snarled at him, ignoring the steam for the moment as he put a hand on the ground and crouched. "Stop dreaming, brat. It's high time you die."

" _Shark on Tooth!"_

He shot towards the rubber boy, his entire body spinning, his sharp teeth leading in front, ready to tear into his enemy.

Luffy saw it all in slow motion.

" _Gomu Gomu no…"_

The fishman came closer and closer.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

_Goodbye, Arlong._

Luffy opened his eyes.

And his fist turned black one last time.

" _Jet Pistol!"_

* * *

An explosion. That was the only way Nami could describe it.

A blast of sound rang in her ears.

And with her eyes, she saw a tunnel.

Anything and everything within the tunnel bent in the same direction. Be it grass, trees, wind or even the ground itself.

And finally, she saw the scene in front of her for what it was.

A path of destruction.

Even the mere aftershocks of the impact had thrown some small trees aside. At the end of the path, she could barely see the fishman laying on the ground, unmoving.

Such was the power contained within that fist.

Nami looked at the boy who stood in front of her. There was no more steam coming from his body and as he stood there, battered and bruised, filled with wounds small and large…

He looked a storybook hero having faced and defeated the terrible evil.

Nami remembered his name.

_Monkey D. Luffy._

He turned to her and Nami's heart beat faster as he looked her over in concern and grinned in relief.

The boy – _Luffy_ – dragged his feet towards her and Nami could only stand still, wondering what he would –

He hugged her. There was no force in his hug. It was gentle and caring and reminded her of Nojiko's hugs.

"I'm glad you're safe." He said, her no longer ringing ears picking up his relieved voice clearly.

Nami didn't know what to say. She opened her mouth to say the first thing that came to mind, a simple 'thank you'.

She didn't get the chance to.

His hands around her slackened, his head slipped off her shoulder and his body fell down.

Nami was left standing silently, her dress thoroughly bloodied.

"Eh?"

She looked at the boy on the ground. He was laying face down.

"Ah?"

Blood was pooling underneath him.

"Wha-?"

Nami's eyes darted towards her mother, the area around the body being one of the only places left untouched throughout the fight.

Her eyes came back to rest on the boy bleeding out in front of her.

She slowly understood what was happening and her eyes started to fill with tears once more.

"Ah."

He wasn't moving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't my best work in many ways. First of all, it's longer than usual. I tried my best to make the fight scenes vivid. As in, anything different than "A punched B. B punched A." Not sure how good it turned out because I can't be the judge of my own work but do tell me how it turned out.
> 
> Oh, by the way. Please tell me if I have to put any specific tags because of the violence in this chapter. Hope you guys still remember that I'm new to AO3.


	7. No Regrets

When Ace and Sabo, with Genzo carrying the latter, came up to the house on the hill, the first thing they saw was the trail of absolute destruction leading away from the house.

They didn’t get the chance to admire the scene before their attention was captured by loud sobbing.

Nami desperately shook the boy lying on the ground, her words incoherent through her sobs. The moment she saw the three new arrivals, she completely ignored the two kids she’d never seen before and focused on the one person she knew.

“Please help! He’s – he’s dying! Help him! PLEASE!” She yelled as loud as she could.

Ace swayed on his feet as the world spun around him for a moment. His eyes zeroed in on his youngest brother lying unmoving on the ground.

The freckled boy’s legs shook, his face a mask of disbelief and rising grief. He tried to run towards his brother but he couldn’t. He tripped and fell down, his body too exhausted to even keep him standing anymore, the adrenaline from earlier having completely worn off.

Genzo however took charge immediately. He dropped Sabo, who was looking equally as shell-shocked, next to Ace and ran back towards the village to get the only doctor among them.

In the midst of it all, Nojiko groggily looked around, wondering what had happened while she was asleep.

* * *

Dr. Nako arrived at the house quickly and assessed Luffy’s condition.

Ace and Sabo sat silently next to them, their gazes intense. A bewildered Nojiko was holding Nami as she sniffled and Genzo was waiting patiently, not knowing what else he could even do.

Nako suddenly cursed.

“What?! What happened?!” Ace immediately shouted, his emotions too volatile to hold the words back.

“His heart rate is too erratic!” Nako hurriedly tied some bandages to reduce the bleeding for the moment to make the boy more suitable for travel.

No one around him could say a word. They all felt powerless as they watched the doctor desperately trying to save the boy.

“Genzo, lift the boy up. Carefully! We’re bringing him back to my clinic. I have a defibrillator there. It’s our last chance to save him!” Nako ordered the sheriff.

Genzo complied without complaint and the adults both lifted the boy and quickly carried him back to the village, the lack of a proper stretcher hampering their pace.

As they entered the village, the surrounding townspeople who were previously celebrating abruptly quietened as they watched the scene. A boy who was leaking copious amounts of blood being hurriedly carried to the only clinic in their village.

Once there, Nako immediately put the boy on the patient’s bed and set up the defibrillator. He charged the device and placed both paddles on Luffy’s chest.

Absolutely nothing happened. The heart rate monitor continued to beep out of rhythm.

“Wha-?” Nako floundered for a moment before he tried again. He charged the device and sent a shock through the boy’s chest once more.

And again, nothing happened.

“What’s going on?! Why isn’t it working?! He should at least jerk upwards but even that isn’t happening! Why?!” Nako yelled in frustration.

Ace stared in despair at the scene. Sabo’s eyes lost focus for a moment before they widened in realization. “I know! It’s because he’s rubber!” He shouted.

Nako and Genzo turned to him in confusion. But Ace was quick to comprehend his brother’s words. “Luffy ate a devil fruit! It turned his entire body into rubber! And rubber, it – electricity – it doesn’t –“ Ace struggled to get his point across.

But Nako understood them clearly “Rubber is an electrical insulator. So then…” He looked at bleeding boy on the bed with complicated feelings. He sighed and put the paddles away. “We can do nothing then.”

Ace almost jumped him, his exhaustion the only thing stopping him from doing so. He shouted in anger instead “What do you mean you can’t do anything?! You’re a doctor, aren’t you?! Fix him! FIX MY BROTHER!”

Beside him, Sabo started to hyperventilate. He focused on taking deep breaths to calm down and also distract himself from throttling the old doctor.

Nako couldn’t even reply. The saviour of their village, the one who defeated the boss fishman, the one who avenged his old friend Bell-mère. And he was unable to even save his life when he needed to. He looked down at the ground, ashamed.

While Ace continued to shout with Nami watching helplessly beside them all, Genzo had a face that looked like he was trying very hard to remember something.

He snapped his fingers as a memory from long ago came to his mind. “Seastone! We need seastone!”

The shouting stopped for a moment as everyone looked at him, silently willing him to explain. Genzo continued “I remember Bell-mère talking about it a long time ago. She said that the only way to counter a devil-fruit user’s power is to make them come in contact with seastone!”

Sabo caught on quickly “So this seastone thing can turn Luffy back from rubber into a normal person?”

“Probably! That's the idea at least. Does anyone have some?” Genzo looked around at them all imploringly. He was met with negative responses all around and he felt dismay.

Genzo rushed out of the clinic. He saw the crowd gathered around the entrace and thanked his luck. He stood in front of them and addressed them “Does anyone among you have a piece of seastone? We need it to save the life of one of our heroes! Does anyone have any?”

The villagers looked at each other in confusion, most of them wondering what seastone even was. Genzo gritted his teeth in frustration “It’s a precious mineral that is said to contain the power of the sea. It’s a kind of metal. Anyone? Does anyone have some of it?”

No replies came forth as the villagers could only look around and shuffle awkwardly.

Inside the clinic, the monitor showed Luffy’s heart rate fluctuating rapidly.

“Please!” Ace pulled himself outside and fell to his knees in front of the crowd “If anyone of you has any seastone, please let us borrow it! Please! We need it to save my brother’s life! _Please!_ ”

He didn’t get any positive response and Ace despaired as a wet sheen covered his eyes.

Sabo stared numbly as the beep that represented his brother’s heart beat became more and more erratic.

“… Anyone?” A small voice came from the door of the clinic and everyone watched as Nami - her dress covered in her saviour’s blood, tears streaming down her face – looked at the crowd hopefully. “I lost my mother today.”

She sniffled pitifully “Please don’t let my hero die for me too.” She rubbed her eyes, trying to stop crying. Nojiko, not knowing what else to do, held her tenderly.

Everyone could only look at the ground below them silently, unable to do anything to help the situation.

Nako waited hopefully for someone to bring some seastone. He waited and waited.

But nobody came.

* * *

In the silence following the heartfelt plea, everyone heard someone running down the road towards them.

Ace numbly turned his head and saw a middle-aged woman running towards them. He squinted his eyes for a moment and realized that it was the woman that he and Sabo had first saved from the fishmen, the woman who was lagging behind the crowd of fleeing villagers and was about to be caught by a fishman.

The woman, her black braid bouncing behind her, her colorful dress marred by dirt, came to a stop in front of them and panted, her hands on her knees. She raised her head and looked at Ace kneeling in front of her, staring at her blankly.

She produced a bracelet from her closed hand. The ornament was entirely plain with no insciptions or designs whatsoever and looked like a dark metal cylinder bent into a ring big enough to fit around a person’s wrist.

“I –“ She breathed heavily as she spoke “This is a family heirloom my grandmother left me. I don’t know if it’s seastone or not but –“ She swallowed “My grandmother said it’s made of a very special metal that has the power of the sea. It – it could be what you need but I don’t – exactly – I mean –“ Her words stuttered, her voice not at all confident.

A new surge of adrenaline ran through Ace as he quickly grabbed the bracelet and ran inside, rushing past Nami who backed away in surprise then followed behind him. The woman fidgeted awkwardly and looked at the clinic, hoping for the best.

“Old man!” Ace shouted as he ran into the room and headed straight for his brother, ignoring the sounds coming from the heart rate monitor. He pushed Luffy’s limp hand into the bracelet and let it rest on his wrist.

Not knowing what to do next, Ace grabbed one of Luffy’s fingers and pulled.

It straightened.

But it didn’t stretch.

“It works! Old man, the seastone works! He’s not rubber anymore!” Ace shouted urgently.

Nako wasted no time being relieved and quickly charged the defibrillator once more. He placed the paddles on the wound-ridden chest gingerly.

The chest jerked upwards and some blood splashed out of the open wounds.

He glanced at the heart rate monitor for a moment and silently charged and placed the paddles again.

Luffy’s chest jerked upwards again.

Nako quietly said a prayer under his breath and tried once more.

The third time was the charm.

He was rewarded with the beeping beginning to settle into a regular rhythm.

The old doctor let out a sigh of relief and put away the device. Ace and Sabo slumped in relief.

Luffy was still dying of course. But at least now, they had gained some more time to treat him.

Nako quickly took a blood sample to check the type and once he did, he ordered someone to go fetch a suitable volunteer while he went about preparing for a transfusion.

While Genzo went back outside to search for a volunteer to donate some blood, Ace followed behind him silently. Outside, before Genzo could say anything, Ace walked to the woman who lent him the bracelet.

Stopping before her, Ace kneeled and without any fanfare, put his head on the ground.

A moment of shocked silence passed.

“Thank you.”

The words came slowly articulated as though the speaker wasn’t used to saying them. The voice was hoarse but clearly audible. And most of all, it was filled to the brim with emotion.

The woman snapped out of her shock and hurriedly pulled him up, mumbling her own gratitude all the while.

Ace stood silent as Genzo requested volunteers for a blood transfusion with the matching blood type. He leaned on the wall of the clinic and slowly slid down as he watched multiple people raise their hands, the woman from earlier among them.

He slowly sat on the ground and watched as the volunteers formed a line outside the clinic, Genzo worried that with the amount of blood the rubber boy had lost, one person might not be enough.

Ace’s eyes slowly closed as he watched the woman stand in the front of the line, her face a mask of worry.

He closed his eyes fully and allowed himself to truly relax for the first time in many days.

* * *

When Luffy opened his eyes a few days later, he found himself in a decently sized bedroom. Light streamed in through the open windows and he looked groggily at the two other beds in the room, both of them empty.

His stomach arbitrarily decided to announce his wakefulness with a loud growl.

Ace, who was sitting on a chair next to his bed and slowly nodding off, suddenly perked up. He looked at the source of the sound and found his youngest brother slowly blinking his eyes.

“Luffy!” He shouted happily as he got up and hugged the other boy.

“Ace! I – ow!” Luffy yelped as pain shot through his body. Ace reared back in surprise and winced as he remembered the multiple bandages covering his brother’s chest, his own body also dotted with the cloth.

Luffy on the other hand just took one look at his bandage covered chest and limbs and then proceeded to ignore them. They were truly nothing new after all this time. He focused more on the odd feeling of weakness he felt that had almost nothing to do with the wounds he had.

“Ace? I feel… weak. And hungry… Really hungry. Some food? Meat? Food?” He devolved into muttering the same words repeatedly.

Ace hurried out of the room, the door slamming behind him as Luffy watched blankly.

He returned a few minutes later with a giant plate filled with various types of meat and fish.

“Meat!” Luffy declared immediately and threw a hand towards the plate.

It didn’t stretch.

He stared at his hand in confusion and threw it forward again. It failed to stretch once more.

Luffy panicked.

“AAAH! I can’t stretch! Ace, help! I can’t stretch! AAAAHH!” He screamed in panic and flailed, almost falling off the bed in the process.

Ace smacked his head in annoyance. “Idiot. Stop moving around so much. You’ll open the wounds again.” He then scratched his head in thought “Now that I think about it, we didn’t remove the seastone, did we?”

“Seastone?! Where?!” Luffy hurriedly scanned his body and found an unknown metallic bracelet on his arm.

He immediately removed it and tossed it across the room.

“Hey!” His brother yelled in alarm.

“I can stretch!” Luffy said much more energetically and proceeded to devour the food his brother had brought.

Ace, who had dived across the floor to catch the bracelet, sat on the floor and looked at him in equal parts annoyance and fond exasperation.

He huffed as he held up the bracelet “You idiot. Be thankful! This thing is what saved your life, you know!”

Luffy looked at him sceptically, his cheeks puffed and a large steak hanging out of his mouth.

“You’re okay, right Ace?” Luffy looked at his patched up brother in concern.

“I should be the one asking you that.” Ace muttered in reply as he went and sat on his own bed, the only inn in the village having provided them the only room with three beds they had.

“Yeah but I’m stronger than you so I’m more worried about you.” Luffy said casually as he continued to eat.

Ace’s eye twitched.

Sabo chose that moment to come in. His shoulder was fixed, his hands were holding crutches and his body was also dotted with bandages.

He looked at Luffy who was inhaling food as though it was air and then at Ace who was looking at the ceiling with an air of asking someone to kill him already.

He smiled happily “You guys look like you’re having fun.”

* * *

Luffy sat completely still as the old doctor removed the bandages on his chest. Chopper had taught him enough manners to at least not move when the doctor was doing something.

The three kids and the doctor who had come to their room looked at the three giant partially healed slash marks in fascination.

“Amazing healing ability you have.” Nako remarked absentmindedly as he removed the bandages and prepared a fresh set.

“I just hope it heals over soon.” Sabo mumbled.

Nako paused his work for a moment. He ducked his head and continued “I’m sorry but that probably won’t happen.”

The three brothers looked at him in alarm. Ace voiced their thoughts out loud “What do you mean? You said it will –“

“No no, that’s not what I meant.” Nako gave them a calming gesture.

He moved his fingers along the three wide slightly curved slash marks, going from Luffy’s left shoulder to his right hip, the middle one slightly longer at the ends than the other two. The upper one started nearer to the collarbone and lower one started a bit below the armpit.

The doctor shook his head and continued “It’s bad enough that I had to put bandages right on top of these but then the defibrillation just made matters worse. And then I found that there were a few chips of… teeth?” He looked at Luffy questioningly and the boy made no move to interrupt.

Nako shook his head again “Anyway, I found pieces of something in the wounds that had to be removed before I could patch them up.”

He sighed “Unfortunately, I am not a trained surgeon. Nor do I have the tools to perform a surgery. As it is, I was lucky that the wounds were so big. Big enough for me to reach inside with some tweezers and remove them.” He looked down sadly “Not without damage though.”

The doctor said nothing more as he silently replaced the bandages on his patient’s chest. Ace however couldn’t stand still and asked “So what does all this mean, doc?”

Nako focused on his work as he replied “We were lucky that the slashes missed the heart” He tapped on the area above the heart that was between the middle and the upper wound. “Though considering that the slashes didn’t reach past the rib cage, it wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been.”

Finished applying the bandages, Nako stood up and clapped his hands “What this means is that the wounds will heal well but instead of normal pink skin, they’ll most likely form scars instead.” He concluded.

The three brothers stared at him for a moment, then burst out with different responses.

“That’s not that bad.” Sabo stated, folding his arms.

“Damn, you got a battle scar before me.” Ace stated as he looked enviously at his brother.

Luffy just laughed, finding it hilarious that he was getting a chest scar again.

“Don’t laugh, damn it!” Ace burst out, annoyed.

Nako looked at the three kids arguing with each other. He stared blankly for a moment before he took a deep breath, preparing to explain why exactly scars were not a good thing to have.

In the end, he just sighed. He looked at the three kids again, his black shades showing nothing in his eyes as Ace angrily shook Luffy by his neck, Sabo tried to hold him back and the rubber boy grinned through it all.

Dr. Nako felt nostalgic as he remembered his own childhood. A moment later, he left the room, looking for Genzo and wondering if the sheriff was up for a drink.

* * *

Bell-mère’s funeral had already concluded while Luffy was initially asleep. When Genzo informed him of what had occurred, Luffy immediately asked for the location of the grave.

He left his brothers behind to their antics as he went to visit the grave. He found it on top of a cliff that overlooked the sea.

A simple wooden cross was what Luffy saw and there was a fresh tangerine next to it on the ground.

Luffy sat cross-legged in front of the grave and stared at it bitterly.

He knew from last time that Nami had lost someone to Arlong in the beginning and even though he had refused to hear the explanation from her sister the previous time, he still knew that someone had died.

It was only now that he realized that it was her mother she had lost.

Because he was late.

Just a few minutes too late. At the time, he knew he was late and he had run as fast as he could to prevent whatever was about to happen.

He remembered the dead woman lying on the ground and remembered how he’d made sure to keep the fight away from her the entire time, taking more injuries in the process.

To top it all off, Sabo had told him earlier how exactly the group had come to use seastone in his treatment.

Luffy realized that in a twisted way, this dead woman had saved his life.

He sat silent as the straw hat on his head swayed in the wind, a new pair of shorts were on his legs and he had foregone the shirt entirely, the bandages providing sufficient cover.

Luffy clenched his fists in his lap. He had experience losing brothers and friends but even he knew that it felt entirely different losing a parent.

He wondered for a moment how he’d feel if his grandpa died. He banished the thought away, not wanting to even imagine it.

Luffy continued to stare bitterly at the cross, lamenting his powerlessness.

As had happened with Ace before, doubts born of guilt came to his mind. Could he have saved her if he had rowed the boat faster? If he had defeated the pirates quicker? If he had not hesitated so long after he had seen the newspaper?

Luffy felt more and more bitter as time passed, as he came to terms with his powerlessness.

With his weakness.

“It’s not your fault, you know.”

Luffy’s head snapped up and he turned to look at Nami who was sitting silently next to him, her legs pulled up to her chest.

He hadn’t even noticed her arrive.

Luffy blinked at her “What – what are you talking about? I don’t –“

“You feel bad that you couldn’t get there earlier, right?” Nami asked softly, the past few quiet days having given her enough time to mourn, think and calm down.

Luffy didn’t reply.

“It’s not your fault.” She stated once more “The others told me, you know. How someone ran through the entire village so fast they couldn’t even see him clearly.”

Luffy stayed silent, remembering the way he’d run faster than ever before to get to her.

If only he’d run faster…

“Stop that.” Nami suddenly ordered and Luffy could only look at her bewildered. She tried to scowl at him but failed “Stop that. Stop moping. You did your best. Sure, you couldn’t save my… mother…” Her voice hitched for a moment.

But she continued, looking at him softly “But you saved me. You didn’t even let him touch me even once. I can’t imagine what he would have done if –“ She stopped speaking.

Truthfully, Nami _could_ imagine. She wasn’t stupid despite being young. She remembered that she had only gotten the fishman’s attention after he saw the map she’d drawn. So it stood to reason that he wanted to make use of her map drawing skills.

Nami could imagine a scenario where she was made to draw map after map in a dark room, fed only scraps of food and beaten if she didn’t do a good job.

It was a nightmare even in her imagination.

But that wasn’t going to happen to her now.

All thanks to the boy sitting next to her.

So Nami smiled at him brightly, the early evening sun giving her face an orange glow to match her hair.

“Thank you.”

Luffy looked at her. Her smiling face overlapped with one from his memories, of her adult self.

_“Luffy…” Blood fell from her shoulder as she looked at him with tears in her eyes “Help me…”_

Luffy decided he didn’t regret his actions.

He was too late to save her mother, definitely.

But he was just in time to save Nami herself.

And that’s what mattered to him the most.

They sat in silence for a while as they watched the sun slowly fall into the horizon.

“Neh…” Luffy turned to her when she spoke “Why are you so strong?”

Luffy tilted his head and looked forward again, the answer to that question he’d given a few times by now to different people “Because I want to be able to protect my friends. So I train. I train myself everyday until I can barely stand.”

Another minute of silence passed.

“How did you know I was in trouble? You’re not from here, right?” Nami asked, more curious about that than anything else.

Luffy answered her “I had a dream. I saw Arlong kidnapping you and making your life miserable.” His fists clenched “I just knew I’d regret it forever if I let that happen” _again_ he added in his mind.

Nami was intrigued by his answer. The situation that he saw her in a dream and came to rescue her was a story straight out of a book as far as she was concerned.

But she was still young, she admitted to herself. Maybe such things could happen in the big wide world. She didn’t know. For that matter, she didn’t even know things called devil fruits existed until she saw him.

But regardless of his bizarre answer, she was grateful nonetheless.

Some time passed as both of them were lost in their own thoughts.

Then Nami silently asked another question.

“Do you know me?”

Luffy didn’t reply this time, the question too loaded for him to give a straight answer.

However, he didn’t have to.

“Nami.”

Luffy looked at her in confusion.

“My name is Nami.” The girl said with a smile.

Luffy blinked for a moment before he grinned at her.

“I’m Luffy!” He said, his chest filled with elation.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while longer.

“What do you want to do in the future?” Nami asked, curious to know what he was going to do with all that strength he possessed.

“I want to be a pirate!” Luffy declared happily.

The smile on Nami’s face cracked.

However, Luffy continued.

“I want to go to the Grand Line! I want to see weird animals! I want to eat new tasty food! I want to visit islands in the sky! I want to visit islands under the sea!”

He rambled on, ignorant of the way Nami’s face went from happiness to dismay to curiosity to plain disbelief.

“I want to fight strong people! I want to save countries from bad guys! I want to have huge parties!”

“I want to make more friends! I want to find the One Piece! I want to become the Pirate King!”

His chest ached as memories from many years ago passed through his mind. He was overcome with nostalgia.

Perhaps as a result of his actions, Nami wouldn’t join him in his journey this time. Perhaps she’d decide that a quiet life in the village suited her. Perhaps as the years passed…

… She’d forget about him.

Luffy desperately held back his tears as he stood up and spread his hands wide.

Luffy did not regret his actions.

As long as Nami was happy, he was satisfied.

As long as she wasn’t suffering, he was satisfied.

He was happy.

His voice shook as he spoke once more, sounding happier than ever before.

“I want to go on an adventure.”

His soft voice echoed in Nami’s ears.

A gust of wind blew from ahead and Luffy held onto his hat. He grinned eagerly at the setting sun, wishing with all his heart for the day when he was old enough to leave to come soon, but knowing deep down that he wasn’t ready yet.

So Luffy made his promise to the world.

“And eight years from now, I will.”

Luffy would not regret his actions.

Regardless of consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think this needs to be said but this is NOT a romance fic. Perhaps some scenes will have a 'romantic vibe' in the future but this story is not focused on exploring romantic feelings and emotions and relationships. And no future smut either. Just sayin'.
> 
> Finally, it's time I acknowledged that I made a mistake in this story. The ages. Or rather, the timeline.
> 
> Canonically, Luffy was around 7 when he met Shanks. He was 7 for the whole of the childhood arc. He was 8 when Jimbei became a warlord. He was 9 when Arlong invaded Cocoyashi.
> 
> I did not know this stuff when I wrote the earlier chapters. I'll freely admit it.
> 
> But for your peace of mind, here's what I came up with for this story: Luffy was 7 when he met Shanks. He was 8 when Garp took him to Dadan. He reached 9 as he spent the months with Ace and Sabo. And he was still 9 when he went to rescue Nami. Add 3 for his brothers' ages.
> 
> Luckily, it doesn't really make a ton of difference either way. But having a proper timeline might give some people peace of mind.
> 
> * * *
> 
>  **Question to reader** _(I'm gonna make this a regular thing)_
> 
> How is the pacing of this story?


	8. Twists and Turns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE (22/11/20): And the muse is gone. As if that wasn't enough, life isn't going spectacularly at the moment either. Not a health issue, don't worry. More of a... socio-economic issue. Probably won't be updating for a long long time. If ever. I hope I do though. I liked writing this story at the time.
> 
> Any comments posted will still be read by me though. Thanks for the support! Just don't expect updates any time soon. I'm really really sorry.

The evening of the day the fishmen invaded, Genzo led a group of armed villagers back to the house on top of the hill.

Once they arrived, they stared silently at the destruction the place had been through. While the house itself remained intact, most of the area in front of it was filled with cracks and craters. And that wasn’t even mentioning the long trench-like trail of destruction leading away from the house.

“So much power in one so young…” One of the villagers muttered and Genzo couldn’t help but agree. He’d seen the two boys Ace and Sabo fight the fishmen but he was now sure that if it were the other boy Luffy who was fighting the dozens of fishmen instead, he’d probably have decimated the crew by himself without any trouble.

The group followed the trail cautiously, the many torches in their hands being the only source of light besides the stars above.

At the end of the trail, they found their target lying unconscious. His head was bleeding, his face swollen, his previously long nose not even present.

Dr. Nako who was part of the group stepped forward and assessed the fishman’s condition. “His chest has caved in.” He said pointing at the crater in the fishman’s chest. He continued “He’s alive. Barely. I have no idea how he’s even breathing but he definitely won’t be waking up any time soon. _Fishmen_. Ugh.” He shook his head in disgust.

Several gulps were heard in the torchlit darkness. Genzo nodded his head “Right. We’ll do as decided then.”

“You mean keep him drugged enough that he won’t ever wake up? Oh yes, I plan to do just that.” Nako sneered at the fallen fishman, his eyes glinting with malice.

* * *

Ace, Sabo and Luffy jogged through the village, dodging and weaving between the various people going about their day but keeping an eye on every person they passed.

“Hey, you three brothers! You wanna try my new recipe?” A thin old man sitting at his shop asked.

“Not now, gramps! We’ll come by later!” Ace yelled as they passed.

“Luffy-kun! You shouldn’t run when you’re covered in bandages like that!” A young woman admonished as the trio weaved around her.

“Shishishi. Sorry! We’re looking for someone! It’s really important!” Luffy laughed carelessly.

The three continued to make their way across the village, Ace and Sabo deflecting well wishes and Luffy just laughing his way through.

“There she is! That’s the one, Luffy!” Ace suddenly exclaimed, pointing at someone ahead.

Luffy ran ahead of them and jumped in the way of the woman who was just leaving the grocery shop, carrying a bag filled with fresh vegetables.

The woman stopped and stared in surprise. Then her face lit up as she set her bag down and gently grabbed Luffy’s face, turning it this way and that.

“Ah! You must be Luffy-kun, right? I’m glad to see you’re up and about. So filled with energy!” The woman said with a smile on her face.

Luffy stared at her. She looked normal. From her face to her braid to her colorful dress to the way she held herself. Everything about her looked normal.

And yet, this normal person had saved his life.

“Don’t pull ahead so suddenly, dammit…” A grumble came from his side as Ace stopped next to him, Sabo arriving leisurely afterwards, his arms behind his head.

The woman turned to the other two brothers and gave them a smile as well “And I see you two are fine as well. I’m glad.”

Ace could only scratch his head in response, too flustered internally to give a proper reply. Sabo was much the same.

Luffy put a hand into his pocket and pulled out an item covered with cloth. He gingerly opened it up and offered up the seastone bracelet it contained.

“Thank you.” Luffy said, not knowing what else he should be saying. He continued awkwardly “I mean, for saving me.”

The woman had not only provided the seastone necessary to treat him, she had also donated some of her blood for a transfusion. Twice she had helped him. Luffy thought he should at least show his gratitude.

She stared at the bracelet resting on a cloth in his hands. A family heirloom. She hadn’t known what it really was until the day she’d given it away to save a young boy’s life.

The woman slowly reached toward it then paused. Her eyes were filled with complex emotions as she slowly reached out with both hands and covered the bracelet with the cloth once more. Then she closed the boy’s hand around it.

She smiled at his bewildered face “Consider it a gift from me, yes? Something to remember me by… To remember our village by.”

Luffy and his brothers could only look at his closed hand blankly.

Sabo suddenly spoke up “Excuse me but… what’s your name?”

The woman blinked and opened her mouth reflexively. But a moment later, she closed it shut and ducked her head slightly.

A moment later, she placed her hands on Ace and Sabo’s heads and beamed at the three “I’m just another person you boys saved. That’s all you need to know.”

Luffy frowned slightly, his gut telling him that there was something wrong in her smile, in her eyes.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get the chance to find out.

“Marines!”

The shout rang through the village and everyone turned towards the sea and saw three ships in the distance, their sails adorned with the mark of the Marines.

“Hurry. Go and hide. You know the plan, yes?” The woman said urgently.

The three brothers nodded as Luffy put the bracelet back in his pocket. With a quick goodbye, they ran back to their room in the inn.

* * *

Genzo, the sheriff of the village who had sent a message to the closest Marine base many days prior, stood straight as several Marines marched up to his office. The people around made way for the group and watched quietly.

The leading Marine, a man in a brown suit and fedora with a coat on his shoulders stopped in front of him and saluted in a professional fashion. His eyes were shadowed by the hat on his head and the sheathed katana on his hip gave off a silent pressure on anyone who stared too long.

“The fishmen?” He spoke quietly.

“All sedated and in custody. Ready for immediate transport, mister…” Genzo trailed off.

The Marine said nothing and just motioned the sheriff to take the lead.

Genzo complied and brought the group to the holding cells. All of them were filled with unconscious fishmen, some still bleeding from their untreated wounds.

The Marine officer nodded to his subordinates and they scrambled to secure every fishman and bring them back to the ships.

As Genzo and the officer stood by, the latter spoke again “We saw the pirates’ ship at the docks. Did your people find anything we need to secure?”

“A meager amount of Bellies. We donated it to the families of those who were killed.” Genzo answered steadily.

They continued to watch as the fishmen were all carried out by the rookie Marines. Even after the area was cleared out, the two still stood silently, the dim lights barely illuminating the area.

“Who defeated them?” The officer’s question was straightforward.

Genzo said nothing. He turned around and followed the last Marine up the stairs.

The officer tilted his head and followed.

* * *

Back on the ship, the officer saluted at his commander who was sitting on a crate and munching on a cracker.

“Sir. The fishmen were thoroughly beaten by an unknown party and have later been sedated by the villagers. Nothing of value has been found in their ship and I have sent some men to board it and follow behind.” The officer said, his words quick and concise, his demeanor professional.

His commanding officer on the other hand was not at all professional as he took another bite of the cracker and hummed. He then devoured the entire snack in one go and dusted off his hands.

The man suddenly jumped off the ship and started to simply walk through the village, his companion officer following silently behind him.

Everyone he made eye contact with turned away immediately, all of them mutually agreeing not to say anything to the Marines.

The commanding officer continued to walk down the street until he suddenly stopped.

He squinted at the air and rubbed his chin, turning his head this way and that before he abruptly shot into the air.

The man crashed right through a wall on the second floor of a building and landed on his feet, debris flying around him. Screams were heard from outside but the man focused on the scene in front of him.

Three children looked up at him in wide-eyed horror.

Monkey D. Garp leveled a narrow-eyed stare at them.

His eyes roamed over to the large sack in one corner of the room but Luffy suddenly leapt towards it and covered it with his body as he glared, all but hissing at the old man.

Garp glared at the three for another few moments before he spoke “Bogard.”

“Yes, Garp-san.” The officer from earlier appeared silently next to him.

“We’re taking these three with us.” Garp said no more and turned around, jumping out of the hole he’d made in the wall.

Bogard turned to the three and waited silently. He caught sight of his commander’s grandson in the room and raised an eyebrow, internally feeling quite incredulous as he realized who might have beaten the fishmen.

Ace and Sabo’s eyes looked around wildly, looking for a way to escape. But a ringing sound suddenly rang out and they looked at the sharp blade that was pushed slightly out of its sheath and slumped.

Luffy sighed. He grabbed the sack behind him and walked glumly towards the hole in the wall.

Ace and Sabo also sighed and did the same, feeling that there wasn’t a point pretending anymore.

As they walked through the village silently, the people around them looking saddened that their plan didn’t work, Sabo nudged Ace’s shoulder “Hey, Ace.”

“Hmm?” Ace said, feeling down at their current situation.

“That old man. Is he maybe…” Sabo trailed off, having a guess in his mind.

“Gramps, yeah.” Ace confirmed.

Sabo shut his mouth, truly not knowing what to say when even the loudmouth Luffy was keeping quiet about their situation.

As they reached the docks where the ships were preparing to leave once more, Luffy stopped and turned. He looked at all the villagers who had gathered at the port and were looking guiltily at the scene.

Luffy took a deep breath.

“EVERYONE!”

His voice echoed across the entire village. The villagers all looked up at him. The Marines on the ships stopped their work and looked at him. Ace, Sabo and Garp looked at him.

Luffy gave them all a bright grin.

“Stay safe, okay?”

There was a moment of silence.

No one said anything. The calm waves of the sea were the only sounds audible.

Then the dams broke all at once.

“You stay safe too, kid!”

“Come back and visit, alright!?”

“Luffy! You better eat well and become a big strong man, you hear!?”

“I hope I see you again sometime, Ace!”

“Do your best, Sabo! I’ll be cheering for you!”

“We’ll be waiting for you guys!”

A storm of cheers erupted from the villagers. Tears were shed, voices became hoarse and emotions flowed out like a torrent.

The Marines could only stare with open mouths.

Ace fell on his butt as he watched everyone scream support at him. He could do nothing as his eyes numbly took in the scene, his ears ringing with the voices echoing around him as he slowly processed the people cheering.

For him.

Not his father. Not for something he didn’t do. Not for his birth heritage.

They were cheering for him.

His eyes were blurry with unshed tears, he belatedly realized.

For Sabo, he took in the cheers silently, feeling overwhelmed by it all. His thoughts were fixed on how the people weren’t cheering for the Marines who were taking their invaders away but for him… one of the people who fought them instead.

He briefly thought of how nobles had to throw money to people to be cheered for but were never celebrated in any other situation except when the people’s lives were at risk, being subtly threatened to make supportive noises.

The cheers felt nice, he thought distantly.

Luffy simply grinned at everyone. His sack tied to his back, Luffy waved his arms in goodbye as he climbed up the ramp leading to the ship, his brothers following behind him with their own thoughts.

As the ships began to move away from the port, the villagers all waved their arms, their cheers still echoing from afar.

Nami stood beside her sister as she waved goodbye, a big smile on her face. Genzo stood behind the two as he silently said his farewell to the three saviours of their village.

Garp looked at the cheering villagers in silence. He turned to his grandson who was standing on the railing of the ship and waving like a madman, without any care for his possible death by drowning as a devil-fruit user.

Garp smiled bitterly.

_You could be such a great Marine, Luffy._

His gaze went to Ace who was quietly staring at the village as it got smaller and smaller, his eyes unreadable.

_And Ace as well._

He considered the blond boy for a moment and looked away, having an idea of who he was already but didn’t bother saying anything.

Garp heard whispers from the other Marines speculating on who the three kids were and why the villagers were cheering for them.

 _Well then._ Garp thought, cracking his knuckles. _Seems I have some mouths to shut._

* * *

The three brothers were given a room on the ship and strictly ordered to stay there and not come out. Since food was brought to them in a timely fashion and there was an attached bathroom already, neither of them felt the need to leave anyway.

It was a silent few days spent sailing through the East Blue. Ace and Sabo were deep in their own thoughts and Luffy guarded the sack he’d brought with him carefully.

In actual fact, Arlong’s ship had contained quite a bit of money. 3.4 million Bellies to be exact.

At first, Genzo had offered the entire loot to the brothers but Luffy had flat out refused to take it and despite Ace and Sabo looking at the money longingly, they made the same decision.

Later, Luffy had thought of giving it all to Nami but the girl had refused – which had made the rubber boy recoil in shock and terror – saying she did not want to be paid for her mother’s death.

A lot of back and forth happened between the three brothers, Nami and Genzo but in the end, Luffy and co had agreed to take three million and split it between them while Genzo split the remaining loot and gave it to Nami and the few villagers who were injured.

Luffy considered the entire argument a failure. Ace and Sabo thought the exact opposite.

Finally, they had just put the loot into a sack and let Luffy carry it.

In the present moment, the three brothers looked out the porthole in their room as the ships all stopped at what was obviously a Marine base.

A day passed as the Marines all went about their business, some of them having suspicious looking bumps on their heads. Since no one came to get them, the three brothers remained in their room.

Eventually, the ship they were in started to move again, this time being the only ship to do so.

And so, another few days passed in relative silence as they travelled once more.

Finally, the ship came to a stop and when they peeked out the porthole again, they found the familiar scenery of Foosha Village outside.

And right on time, the door to the room opened and Bogard motioned them towards the exit.

* * *

“YOU STUPID FOOLISH BRATS!”

“AAAAAH!”

Garp, who had kept his feelings about the matter bottled up the entire time, released them all with a vengeance.

The result of this was boulders bashing through trees and bushes alike as Luffy, Ace and Sabo ran for their lives while an irate Garp pursued them from behind, flinging giant boulders or sometimes even animals at the three.

A large bear crashed through a tree next to the running trio, startling them into smacking face first into a large knocked out snake in their way.

As they groggily stepped out of the squishy snake’s hide, Garp stood menacingly next to them. He blew a breath on his fist.

Three bonks sounded out followed by three pained moans.

While the three children sat on the ground and cradled the bumps on their heads, Garp crossed his arms across his chest, his white Marine uniform slightly dirtied by the forest chase.

“I was just about to go back to headquarters when I got the call to collect a group of defeated pirates. And when I come to get them, what do I find? You!” Garp glared at them.

“How about you brats tell me why I found you three halfway across the East Blue?”

Neither of them answered, stubbornly looking away from him.

Garp waited a minute. Then two. Then three.

Then he abruptly turned to Luffy.

“Luffy! You’re behind this, aren’t you?!”

“I didn’t even say anything!” Luffy yelled in disbelief.

“That’s exactly how I figured it out!” Garp replied smugly.

 _He does have a point._ Ace and Sabo thought silently, knowing that usually Luffy tended to be a loudmouth and him staying silent was the first clue.

Luffy just gaped incredulously.

Garp let out an explosive breath “So? What was it then? Why and how did you three get all the way there? And how long were you there?”

Garp didn’t even bother asking if they were the ones who defeated Arlong and his crew. He knew his grandson’s strength very well and if Luffy had improved since the last time Garp had seen him, it was entirely within reason for him to have defeated Arlong. Ace and the other one probably helped out here and there.

For that matter…

“And who are you?!” Garp shouted belatedly at the blond boy.

“Oh, uh – I’m Sabo, gramps! I mean, sir! Sabo, sir!” He said, correcting himself midway.

“Aaah?!” Garp glowered at him and Sabo practically sank into the snake behind him.

“Well, whatever. Luffy! You still haven’t answered me!” The old man shifted back to his grandson.

Luffy stayed defiantly silent. While he _could_ tell his grandpa about the dreams, he just didn’t want to.

While Luffy usually thought of himself as having been reincarnated, he knew the truth that it wasn’t quite that simple.

The first five years of his life had passed in a haze of headaches and fluctuating personalities, shifting between that of a baby with no knowledge of the world and sometimes that of an adult who had sailed the seas.

The additional memories that he had were more equivalent to inherited knowledge than reincarnation because in those first five years, the memories of his adult self had come to him in the forms of daydreams, sleep dreams and nightmares despite all the memories already being present in his psyche.

Although his personality had settled into one more mature than his age – at least, as mature as Luffy could ever reasonably become - the result of all those were the headaches. Because as a baby, he was not getting enough rest. It was also _one_ of the factors on why he immediately went into a depression after it all stopped.

His lethargic brain had finally got its chance at rest and made his entire self feel weak as a side effect. His lethargy had ultimately given him more time to look back on his past and mope, which had lead to depression.

Garp dropping him into a ravine had basically jumpstarted his refreshing mind and brought his conscious thoughts back up to speed.

So in a very broad sense, Luffy’s knowledge of events truly were thanks to dreams. The only difference was that they were old dreams and not recent ones like Ace or Sabo thought he had.

Luffy hadn’t exactly lied to Nami when she had asked how he knew of her plight.

But even though Luffy didn’t know all this in the proper words, he had an instinctive understanding of his situation.

And this was also why he didn’t want to tell Garp the reason he and his brothers went out to sea. Because Garp was someone who had seen much of the world and would definitely get too involved in Luffy’s life if he told him.

Perhaps even hide him away from the world, like he tried to do with Ace.

Or force him into the Marines despite Luffy’s protests.

Although he wasn’t usually one to think of the future too much, Luffy was still scared of the possibilities.

Which was why he remained stubbornly silent in the face of Garp’s menacing question.

Eventually, Garp gave up and sighed. “Fine then. I won’t ask you anymore. But know this!” He gave them all a scary look once more and the children cowered in a huddle “I’ve given Makino a transponder snail. She’ll be checking up on you every now and then.”

“And if she finds that you three have left the island again, she’ll call me right away! And I…” Garp cracked his knuckles ominously “… will find you.”

He didn’t bother to elaborate his words and turned around, shouting a farewell as he marched away.

As he silently walked through the underbrush, Garp remembered seeing how badly the head fishman was beaten by his grandson. In his heart, Garp was proud. How could he not be? His nine year old grandson had beaten someone who hailed from the Grand Line after all.

But it was precisely because of this that he refused to let them go out to sea so soon once more. Garp would not let Luffy get a big head and recklessly charge into the Grand Line at such a young age while still being so weak.

Because even though Garp had acknowledged that Luffy would never be a Marine and that he would most probably become a pirate in the future, Garp wouldn’t just sit back and let him run to his death.

The old man remembered the scars he’d seen on his grandson’s chest when he was replacing his bandages.

Garp’s eyes sharpened and he clenched his fists. They reflexively turned a shiny black.

_Seems someone needs to be taught a lesson._

* * *

Garp’s thoughts revealed themselves two weeks later.

Luffy, Ace and Sabo had gotten back into their rhythm of spending time on Mt. Colubo. The sudden increase to their pirate funds saved them a lot of time and allowed them to focus more on training and having fun.

It was one day two weeks later that Luffy ran up to their hideout and found Ace and Sabo staring intensely at something between them. As he came closer, he realized that it was a newspaper.

“Hey guys! What are ya looking at?” He asked as he stopped in front of them.

They didn’t reply, too immersed in reading the paper.

Luffy squinted in confusion then twisted his head to look at the paper.

He almost jumped in horror when he read the headline.

_MARINE HERO GARP ASSAULTS WARLORD JIMBEI!_

The article talked about how the renowned Marine hero had suddenly showed up at Fishman Island by himself and had suddenly started attacking a flustered Jimbei out of nowhere.

In the end, the Warlord was predictably in a bad condition by the time Garp had stopped attacking and left. Although he didn’t have any life-threatening injuries, the Warlord was thoroughly beaten down.

When asked for an explanation, both of them had refused to comment.

Luffy read the entire article, dumbfounded.

“What happened to gramps all of a sudden to go and do something like this?” Ace asked in shock.

Sabo shook his head, having no answer to the question. Luffy was similarly speechless.

* * *

Meanwhile at Marineford, Fleet Admiral Sengoku was busy chewing out his most able Vice Admiral.

“Damn it, Garp! Why did you have to go on your own and cause trouble?! This could have been solved through talking!”

Garp said nothing and furiously munched his way through a packet of crackers.

* * *

The next day, another significant occurrence was announced in the news.

_WHITEBEARD PIRATES SEEN MOVING TOWARDS THE RED LINE!_

Luffy gulped and looked away, feeling apprehensive. He peeked at Ace who was looking at the description of the world’s strongest man in interest.

Another few days passed in silence before the news blared out another eye-catching headline.

_WHITEBEARD PIRATES SPOTTED GATHERING IN FISHMAN ISLAND!_

_MARINES SEEN MAKING PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE AT HEADQUARTERS!_

Luffy almost had a heart attack, his mind playing flashbacks of his misadventure in Marineford. He comforted himself by taking a day off from his training to spend more time with Ace and Sabo.

As the world watched the rising tensions in apprehension… The next day, a very different headline was printed on the papers worldwide.

_WARLORD JIMBEI APOLOGIZES TO EAST BLUE!_

And suddenly, Luffy understood why his grandpa had attacked Jimbei.

The article spoke of how Jimbei wished to publicly apologize to the citizens of East Blue for carelessly letting a known human-hating radical fishman get into the East Blue. He expressed his regret for being so soft towards his former comrade and allowing him to do as he pleased.

Finally, he expressed his deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their loved ones because of his inability.

While the honest and sincere tone of his message wasn’t as well portrayed in the newspaper, Luffy knew that his words came from his heart and that he was seriously apologizing to the masses.

“Huh. So that’s why…” Sabo muttered while Ace nodded in comprehension.

_WHITEBEARD PIRATES STOP THEIR ADVANCE TO FISHMAN ISLAND!_

_TENSIONS DEFUSE! MARINES APOLOGIZE FOR VICE ADMIRAL GARP’S RECKLESS ACTIONS!_

The Marines themselves gave apologies for the reckless actions of one of their own and causing a panic. But having finally found out why the Marine hero had assaulted the warlord, the media expressed subtle praise for Garp being willing to step up and take measures, despite the consequences of his recklessness.

Just like that, the entire fiasco came to an end.

And Luffy was silently happy that it did.

* * *

Time passed once more.

Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years.

The three young boys who lived on the mountain grew taller and stronger as time passed, slowly transforming into splendid men.

Due to her newly assigned role, Makino the bartender became a regular sight to the three and Ace and Sabo took the opportunity to learn proper language and manners from her. Sabo had a head start in this aspect since he had lived part of his life in a noble household.

Luffy stood aside and laughed at their efforts, after which he was always chased across the jungle by two very annoyed brothers.

Eventually, the time came when Ace and Sabo were both seventeen years old.

And at that time, Sabo suddenly dropped a bomb on his brothers.

* * *

“Eh?” Ace sat in stunned silence.

Luffy scratched his head, having not quite expected this turn of events.

Sabo sat cross-legged in front of the two and looked down guiltily.

The three were perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, the wind blowing gently across the area. However, none of the three were in a mood to care about the nice view.

Ace heaved himself and stumbled forward, grabbing Sabo’s collar and lifting him to eye level. The freckled boy growled “What did you just say?”

Sabo sighed and repeated his earlier words “I don’t want to become a pirate.”

Ace’s grip on his collar tightened but he suddenly let go and took a step back, sitting on the ground once more. Sabo also slowly sat down after him while Luffy just watched the byplay happen.

“Explain.” Ace said, his voice betraying nothing.

Sabo nodded and started to speak. He spoke of how he’d felt after the incident of the Gray Terminal burning, the visit by the World Noble, the implication by the fishman they’d once fought that the Marines were a corrupt organization and various other smaller incidents that happened throughout the years. Some of which he experienced in Goa Kingdom and some of which he read about in newspapers.

“I gave this a lot of thought, you know? I really really wanted to become a pirate and sail the seas with you, Ace. I really did. But…” Sabo paused for a moment then gulped and continued “I want to do more.”

Hearing no replies, he continued once more. “Being a pirate is… fun, yes. It sounds fun. But I want to do more. I want to fight against the nobles. I want to reform the Marines. I want to… make this world a better place, you know? Just… a bit less dirty.” He finished awkwardly.

Ace stayed silent, digesting his brother’s words with crossed arms. The wind ruffled his hair for a while before he asked “Then what do you want to do?”

Sabo slumped and ducked his head again “I… want to join the Revolutionary Army.”

Ace suddenly let out a gusty sigh of relief, catching Sabo by surprise. Ace gave him an annoyed look “From your words, I thought you’d join the Marines or something. But it’s just the Revolutionary Army.”

He sniffed in annoyance before he got up and smacked Sabo across the head, knocking his top hat off. “Say that first, you fool. I didn’t need the speech.”

Sabo’s lips twitched into a smile at his response. His smile widened when he saw Luffy rolling on the ground in boredom, paying the minimum amount of attention as needed and looking not at all surprised.

Sabo wasn’t put off. His youngest brother was strange like that. He probably already knew that Sabo was wavering in his decision to become a pirate for a while but just left him to it. ‘Your secret is yours to tell’ was a code that all three usually adhered to. So it wasn’t surprising Luffy hadn’t spoken up about it if he knew.

The blond couldn’t help but start laughing. Really, he loved both his brothers and their strange behaviours all included.

Ace shook his head with a smile. He spoke after Sabo stopped laughing “So how are you gonna go about this?”

Sabo stood up and dusted off his top hat. He put it on his head and spoke “I’ve already found a contact in the city that can get me in touch. I grilled him a bit for more info and he spilled the beans on a small base they have on the island.”

“What, in the city?” Ace asked incredulously, imagining the Revolutionary Army being so close to the nobles of Goa.

“No, it’s in a secluded cove away from the city.” Sabo answered him as he tightened his black gloves.

“I never thought there’d be a place on this island that we haven’t found by now.” Ace muttered, impressed with their hiding place.

“We actually did find it when we were much younger. But at the time there wasn’t any tunnel or cave or any way to access the place easily. The Revolutionaries built themselves one.”

“Huh. Well then, you –“ Ace started but suddenly stopped talking as he felt a chill go down his spine while Sabo felt a similar feeling.

They both slowly turned to look at Luffy who had been silent for way too long.

They found him grinning and cracking his knuckles.

“Let’s go say hi.”

Suddenly, Sabo felt like his chances of getting into the organization plummeted drastically.

Ace squinted his eyes, feeling like he was forgetting something.

* * *

In a large dimly lit cave next to a secluded cove, roughly a dozen people roamed around, busy with their own work. Some moved crates of supplies from one place to another while others were busy writing documents. Some just sat around and looked menacing.

All of this was interrupted as a teenage boy with three mean looking scars on his chest and wearing a straw hat strolled right in, whistling a cheery tune while two older boys followed behind him cautiously.

Luffy stopped in front of his gawking audience and beamed at them “So who’s the leader here?”

An apprehensive looking man stood up from his seat behind the table. Though he looked rough, the simple shirt and pants he was wearing still made him look more professional than the rest of his colleagues.

“Who might you be?” His eyes darted towards one of the guards who kept a hand on his sheathed sword.

“I’m Luffy! I wanna talk to your boss.” The boy in the lead stated cheerfully.

One of the men who was looking intensely at the three new arrivals since they entered suddenly recognized the style of dress Luffy was wearing. Straw hat on his head, shorts on his legs and shirt tied around his waist, Luffy had still stuck to it since he didn’t get his clothes dirty as often with his intense training.

But that just made it easier for the man to remember.

“Ah!” He suddenly exclaimed, Luffy jumping away from him in surprise. He gave an apologetic glance to the boy and turned to his tense looking comrades.

“Guys! It’s them! The three brothers who saved us five years ago!” He shouted happily.

Everyone there blinked and took a closer look at the three brothers. Then they burst out in shouts as they realized the same thing.

“It really is them! Whoa, they’ve grown.”

“Grown? They’ve practically shot up like a tree.”

“They definitely look stronger than before.”

Sabo and Ace looked around in confusion, wondering how they were recognized all of a sudden. Luffy shook his wet feet from having landed on some water.

The leader from before stepped forward and gave them a welcoming smile “It’s good to see that you three are still safe.”

“Do we… know you?” Sabo spoke slowly. Ace looked like he had the same question on his mind.

The man scratched his head “Probably not me or us specifically but… We used to live in the Gray Terminal five years ago.”

Luffy, Ace and Sabo blinked then soon understood how they were recognized.

Former residents of the Gray Terminal. Five years ago, the three brothers had warned them and helped them evacuate when the place was set on fire.

Sabo held his chin in thought “I see. So you guys joined the Revolutionary Army.”

“A lot of us did. Those who didn’t were ferried over to different islands in East Blue. We couldn’t _all_ live in the forests, right?” The man said, taking a humorous jab at the boys’ instruction back then to run into the forest.

Sabo smiled in response and was about to speak again when Luffy suddenly got in the leader’s face.

“Hey, hey! If you’re the leader guy, you should have some kinda way to talk to your boss, right?” Luffy asked with a grin.

“Um, I really shouldn’t…”

“So you do! Call him for me. Please~?” The rubber boy pleaded.

The man began to sweat “Like I said, I really shouldn’t –“

“I’ll kick your ass if you don’t.”

No reply.

The poor man looked like he was going to cry.

In the end, he led the three brothers over to his work desk and took out a deceptively simple looking transponder snail from a drawer.

He looked at the straw hat boy again and slumped when he saw the expectation on his face. He dialed a number and held the mouth piece gingerly.

“Yeah?” A voice came from the snail’s mouth.

“Send me up. Need to speak to Dragon-san.” The man replied, his voice apprehensive.

The leader of Goa Kingdom’s base was one who was picked personally by Dragon and thus had more authority and priority than many other base leaders when it came to getting a direct line to their commander.

There was a moment of silence from the other end before a grunt came through followed by a dial tone.

A different, deeper voice came from the snail afterwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE (22/11/20): And the muse is gone. As if that wasn't enough, life isn't going spectacularly at the moment either. Not a health issue, don't worry. More of a... socio-economic issue. Probably won't be updating for a long long time. If ever. I hope I do though. I liked writing this story at the time.
> 
> Any comments posted will still be read by me though. Thanks for the support! Just don't expect updates any time soon. I'm really really sorry.
> 
> * * *
> 
> To all of you that expressed support and gave useful criticism, thank you! And know that even if I don't reply to you guys, I still truly appreciate the feedback. To be fair, much of the time I don't reply because well, how do I reply to a comment like 'great chapter'? Say thanks? Help me. I'm not good with social stuff.
> 
>  **Now about the chapter.** To those readers who suggested a time skip, there you go! Oh don't worry about the last scene. Its continuation isn't long at all.
> 
> And I'll say this right now. 3 million really isn't that big an amount. I have my suspicion that Ace and Sabo already had around half a million when Luffy came along in canon. That entire loot part was just meant to address the question 'what happened to any treasure Arlong had'.
> 
> Also, the dream thing. Originally, I'd used it as an excuse for future knowledge. But then I thought 'why not make it real?' It doesn't really play a big role in the story so no need to spend too much time on it.
> 
> * * *
> 
> **Reader's Answer**
> 
> Q: How is the pacing of this story?  
> A: Good pacing. Could be slightly faster. Time skip recommended.
> 
> _And here you go. One time skip served hot and fresh. I'll try to keep this pace in mind. Thanks for the answer!_
> 
> * * *
> 
> **Question to Reader**
> 
> How in-character would you say the characters are so far? (With some leeway for time travel shenanigans)  
>  _Warning: Nami WILL be OOC in the future because her backstory has changed._


End file.
